Primeval: the Next Generation
by Captain Fedo
Summary: When the ARC closes down, but anomalies begin showing up again, the only people left who can do anything are the people who have dealt with the creatures before. This is the story of their adventures picking up where the ARC left off.
1. Chapter 1

_It's been four years since convergence and the ARC has been shut down. After a brief spike in anomalies, they stopped. Now the ARC has been disbanded, it's members sworn to secrecy and trying to live normal lives again._

_But anomalies have began opening up again. The government lied to the populace about convergence day, claiming a terrorist attack through hallucinogenic chemicals in the water supply. And everyone believed them, except people who had encountered anomalies before and seen dinosaurs with their own eyes. They knew what was happening._

_So when anomalies began re-opening, these people stepped up._

**Primeval: the Next Generation**

**Chapter 1**

"I'm telling you, look at it, Steve. It's a dinosaur!" Darren exclaimed, pointing at the screen of his camera. Steve ran his hands through his shaggy blond hair and looked at the blurry image closely. His friend was right, it was definitely a dinosaur. Steve looked up at his taller friend, who was staring back with a look of glee in his eyes.

"Yep, that's definitely a dino." Steve told him, "where did you take this?"

"About half a mile into Benton Woods," Darren explained, "Mrs. Johnson wanted some woodland shots for her wildlife exhibit." Steve nodded as he moved to his computer, bringing up a map of the woods.

"Should we go now?" Darren asked, looking suddenly nervous. "It's going to get dark soon." Steve thought for a moment, Darren had a point, but he wanted to see if they could find the anomaly tonight.

"We'll bring torches." Steve said confidently, "It'll be fine."

Steve printed the map of the woods while Darren went to get the torches and his camera case. Steve shook his head, grinning. He knew Darren loved that camera almost more than life itself and he'd never go anywhere without it. Darren worked as a freelance photographer and he was always on the lookout for something new to photograph. Steve, on the other hand, was much more of a computer person, he always had been. He worked from home for a tech support hotline, answering calls every day to help the less fortunate with their computer complaints.

The two had known each other since they were eight and after graduating secondary school, they'd moved in together, splitting the rent on their two bedroom apartment. They shared enough hobbies and interests to be close friends, but not enough to get on each others nerves, they were a perfect match.

And they shared one interest most people didn't: finding out the truth behind the anomalies and what most people referred to as 'the day that wasn't real'. Steve could still remember that day four years ago as vividly as though it was yesterday. In fairness though, most people could. Dinosaurs in the streets, people with guns in black jumpsuits running around, mass chaos and carnage. Steve looked at Darren as they got into the car, they'd been at the food mart, picking up groceries when a pack of triceratops stampeded through the store. The pair had taken charge of the panicked shoppers, directing everyone into the storeroom for safety.

Then the government said that none of it had been real, there had been drugs in the waters that disguised the truth of a terrorist attack. But Steve and Darren knew the truth, they'd seen dinosaurs before and it hadn't been the first time they'd dealt with them. As if reading his thoughts, Darren spoke up from the passenger seat.

"If it is the anomalies, and dinosaurs are back," He began, "we need to tell people. They need to be warned about the dangers. I don't want another..." Darren grew silent, still unable to say her name. Steve looked over at his friend.

"Let's just concentrate on finding the proof first." Darren nodded and fell silent again. Steve thought back to his and Darren's first encounter with dinosaurs and the glowing balls of light referred to as anomalies.

They'd been in detention for creating a mess and horrible smell in the chemistry lab. It wouldn't had been as big of a deal it it hadn't been obvious they'd done it on purpose. So they were given detention one Saturday with Beth Henderson, Darren's crush. It had seemed like it was going to be a normal Saturday detention until everything went to hell in a handbasket.

A pack of _Therocephalians_ had gotten into the school while Steve, Darren, and Beth were out of the classroom. Steve and Darren survived, Beth wasn't so lucky. They'd been saved by a man called Connor Temple who said he worked with something called the ARC. After that day, Steve and Darren began trying to find out everything they could about the ARC and anomalies.

And then, after convergence, the ARC ceased to exist. Steve couldn't find out anything about it anywhere. The pair had given up hope of finding out the truth, until one day he'd received a letter with no return address. The only thing the letter had were two words: Abby Temple.

Steve and Darren had both been at a loss about what the words meant until Darren remembered they'd been saved by a Connor Temple. Steve got back into the ARC mainframe, which had been protected by firewalls so advanced that he couldn't even begin to crack it. When Steve got back into the database, he was greeted by the familiar password screen. Steve typed in Abby Temple and suddenly, the entire ARC was open to them.

Steve and Darren had access to everything the ARC team knew about anomalies, convergence, past members, technology, all of it. Together, the pair began researching how to build anomaly detectors, locking mechanisms, and EMDs. Unfortunately, the only luck they'd had was with a small handheld detector which Darren packed in his camera bag. But now, they were going to find a real dinosaur and an anomaly and help keep people safe, just like the ARC had done for them once. Steve parked the car at the front of a path into the woods.

"Let's go round up some dinosaurs." He said with a grin as he shut off the car.

XXXXX

Taylor Jensen drove alone through one of the roads cutting through Benton woods. She was angry and driving faster than she knew was safe, especially at night. She and Brian had finally split up, and though relieved, Taylor was also more than a little upset at his reasons. Brian had called them off after three months because he was tired of her "dominance".

Taylor scoffed to herself. Brian claimed she always had to be in control or she wasn't happy, but Taylor knew it wasn't true. She just liked to take command of any situation, it was just part of her personality. She shook her head again, Brian wasn't worth her time, she decided.

Taylor was so caught up in her own personal thoughts that she almost didn't hear the interference on the radio. She froze, slamming the brakes on her car to listen closer. The song on the radio was being overpowered by a noise Taylor had only heard once before in her life. She leaned in closer to be absolutely sure. It was, her radio was picking up interference from an anomaly.

Taylor sat up straighter as she looked around, hoping to see it and the people who worked with the anomalies. She heard a strange dragging noise and saw the change on her dashboard sliding towards the right side of the car. She smiled, that had to mean the anomaly was that way. Taylor got out of the car, trying to contain her excitement. She couldn't wait to see another anomaly, and hopefully see Professor Nick Cutter or Stephen Hart. She grabbed a handful of change and held her palm out, watching the coins gravitate in one direction. With her makeshift compass, Taylor walked into the woods.

XXXXX

Lucien Bell stared at his future brother-in-law and added more wood to the fire. Sitting on the other side of the fire, Ben Trent stared back. Lucien's little brother, Trey, was engaged to Ben's older sister, Alice, and the couple wanted their respective siblings to bond. Lucien, six years older than Ben, really didn't want to meet the aspiring lawyer, but Trey had insisted. So Lucien had suggested that the pair go camping, something he loved to do but didn't think Ben would have much experience with.

But to his credit, Ben had been doing pretty well, he'd managed every task Lucien had given him and done anything he'd asked. So now, the pair were sitting in silence, each trying to decide which they wanted to do less, break the silence or disappoint their sibling. Apparently Alice Trent was scarier than she looked.

"You were in the Army, right?" Ben asked, poking the fire. Lucien sighed to himself, he might as well hold up his end of the conversation seeing as he didn't have to start it.

"Six years," He replied curtly. "It was some of the best times of my life."

"Why'd you get out." Ben asked, looking more interested. Unbidden, Lucien's mind flashed back to his last tour of duty. The smoke and fires everywhere, and the smell of blood in the air, mingled with the aroma of cordite from the gunshots. His mind sent images of friends bleeding and dying, of building and humvees exploding and burning.

"Hey, hey Lucien, you okay?" Ben's voice snapped him out of his reverie and he looked around wildly. Ben eyed him with concern.

"You alright, man?" He asked, looking worried, "You just sort of zoned out on me for a minute there." Lucien nodded, still shaken by his memories.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." Lucien took a deep breath, still trying to keep his breathing under control. He needed to take the attention off of himself.

"What about you?" He asked, "Trey said you were going to school to become a lawyer?" Ben nodded.

"Yeah, it seemed like a good career, I always did well in public speaking." Ben looked behind him for a moment. "Is that a rifle?" he asked, gesturing the the barrel sticking out of Lucien's tent. Lucien nodded, still trying to control the flood of memories trying to get in.

"Yeah," Lucien answered, "I brought it just in case. You never know." Ben nodded again, looking at the fire in thought. Lucien leaned back, listening to the crackle of the fire and the sounds of the forest. Then a woman screamed.

XXXXX

Darren ran through the woods following his best friend Steve as he followed the directions on the detector. On one hand, Darren's mind was going crazy thinking about how everything was going to change if they found a real anomaly. But on the other, if they found the anomaly, he had no idea what they were going to do with it. He raised his point with Steve when the former stopped to fiddle with the detector.

"Do we have any idea what we're going to do if we do find this anomaly?" Darren asked, looking at his friend. Steve looked up from the detector.

"I was just wondering the same thing, actually." He admitted. "Really wish we'd gotten those EMDs online."

"Or the locking mechanism." Darren added, looking around. After a moment, Steve shrugged.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." He said casually, tapping the detector again. "Ah, here we go, picked up the signal again. It's close." And Steve was off. Darren looked at his running friend in amazement. It really wasn't that surprising, it was classic Steve. His motto was improvise, adapt, and overcome. Darren's motto, if he ever decided he needed a motto, was more along the lines of plan, panic, plan again, drink a lot, go for it, improvise. It wasn't perfect but it worked, sometimes. Steve called his name and Darren looked up.

"Coming." He shouted back. Of course, despite not planning, he'd still follow Steve anywhere on any stupid idea, it was just who he was. With a groan, Darren took off after Steve.

After only a few more minutes of running, Darren and Steve stopped at the entrance to a clearing, both awestruck by the sight of the anomaly. Neither of them had seen the one that had opened in their school, they'd only seen the pictures in the ARC database. None of which could have prepared them for the beauty of the sight before them. Darren's entire attention was focused on the shifting and refracting lights that made up the portal to the past.

Thinking fast, he walked closer to the anomaly and pulled his camera out of his bag. The camera, his pride and joy, had been a graduation gift from Steve. Darren's parents were both alcoholics who drank away every spare cent they had and Steve's parents never seemed to care about him at all. He'd spent the night at Darren's once and told him that his parents hadn't even noticed he was gone. So when they graduated from secondary school, they'd gotten each other a gift. It was also a thank-god-we-didn't-get eaten-by dinosaurs gift, but they didn't tell other people that.

When he got his camera ready, Darren took several shots of the anomaly. Steve looked at him with a triumphant grin.

"We found one, mate." He said, still smiling, "We really found one."

Suddenly, Darren heard someone trampling behind them through the underbrush. He and Steve both turned around simultaneously to see a pretty young woman with shoulder length blond hair step into the clearing where the anomaly was located. Darren was sure her expression of shock matched theirs. he noticed she had her hand outstretched and was had a handful of change sitting on her palm. The small coins were moving towards the anomaly and Darren realized the woman must have used them to find it. Steve, as usual, recovered from shock first.

"If you're looking for the bus," He said, indicating the coins in her outstretched hand, "You just missed the last one. You'll have to walk back home now, good night." But the woman ignored him and walked forward, staring intently at the anomaly. Darren grabbed her arm, stopping her from going anywhere closer. She glared at him and wrenched her arm free. Darren tried to explain the dangers that could come out of the anomaly, but he couldn't make anything come out of his mouth. He gave an inward groan, he always got like this around beautiful women for the first time. Luckily, Steve was there.

"You're gonna have to excuse my friend," He said, moving in front of the girl, stopping her progress again. "This is our science project and he gets a little defensive when people get too close." The blonde woman looked at Steve in shock.

"Science project?" She said angrily, "Do you think I'm stupid? This thing isn't man made, anyone can see that. You and your friend are just two guys who found something in the woods and tried to claim it. You have no idea what it is you've found or how dangerous it can be."

Steve and Darren first looked at each other and then the woman in surprise.

"I think," Steve began slowly, "We both know more about this than we thought. I'm Steve Banner and my quiet friend is Darren Richards." Darren gave a small wave, still watching the woman anxiously to see her response.

She relaxed slightly, looking at the pair of them before looking at the anomaly again.

"Taylor Jensen." She said finally "So you do know what this is?" She asked, gesturing at the anomaly.

"It's a tear in space and time." Darren said, forcing himself to speak. "They're called anomalies, this is the first one that's been recorded in years." Taylor looked at him, but Darren focused on the ground, unable to meet her eyes. Darren felt embarrassed and angry at himself. He was twenty years old, he should be able to talk to a woman by now. Luckily Steve stepped in again.

"How exactly did you find out about anomalies?" He asked, looking her up and down. "No offense, but you don't look like the usual 'I-saw-a-dinosaur' conspiracy nut. Plus, we'd have seen you at the conventions." Taylor looked at Steve in surprise.

"I didn't know there were other people who knew about these anomalies. I thought it was only the ARC." Darren looked up in interest.

"You've met the ARC?" He asked excitedly, "Who'd you meet?"

Unfortunately, at that moment, a large raptor leapt out of the anomaly and stared at the three people standing less than ten feet in front of it. Taylor screamed.

XXXXX

Ben Trent rushed through the woods after Lucien, silently hoping that whoever screamed was still alive. He and Lucien had heard the scream and Lucien had snapped into full soldier mode. He'd grabbed a torch and his rifle, ordering Ben to stay at the camp. But Ben wasn't going to let Lucien go off into the woods on his own, so he grabbed a torch and went with him. Lucien had been about to object, but decided against it.

So the pair set off running through the forest in the direction of the screams. Lucien had taken the lead and Ben followed, trying desperately to keep up with the other man, who was clearly in better shape. Suddenly, Lucien veered off to the left.

"I heard something." He called back to Ben. Ben nodded, trying to conserve his energy by not talking. As they ran farther ahead, Ben heard the sound of running water. They had to be close to the stream that cut through the middle of the woods. Lucien stopped running ahead of Ben and seemed frozen in place. As Ben caught up, he could see why.

Backed up against the stream were three young adults, all of them around Ben's age. They looked terrified and exhausted. It was the thing that was causing them to back up that caught Ben and Lucien's attention. It was a raptor, a full grown, male raptor. Lucien seemed frozen, the rifle hanging limply by his side. Ben nudged him.

"Can't you shoot that thing?" He asked frantically. Lucien shook himself out of his shock and held the rifle up against his shoulder.

"I can't get a clear shot." He said in a low tone. "I can't hit it from here, there are too many trees in the way." Ben looked around in desperation.

"What about if the raptor was over there?" He asked, pointing to an opening in the tree line to the right of their position. Lucien shouldered the rifle again.

"Yeah," He said confidently, "I could hit it there. But how're we going to get it there?" Ben gave a grimace. Lucien looked at him in shock.

"You aren't serious?" He said in astonishment. Ben nodded

"Shoot fast." He muttered. Then Ben took off, heading in the direction of the raptor, which was still advancing slowly on the three people backed up against the stream.

As Ben ran towards the raptor, he began yelling as loudly as he could, his earlier exhaustion forgotten with the rush of adrenaline. The raptor turned his head in confusion, looking at Ben.

"That's right," He yelled, waving his arms, "look at me. You don't want them, I look much tastier." His yelling was working, the raptor began turning his body to face Ben. And then it sprinted at him, utilizing it's unnatural speed. With a hurried curse, Ben began running towards the opening for Lucien to shoot.

As he got nearer, Ben turned to look at the raptor, which was still gaining. Unfortunately, by taking his eyes away from where he was going, Ben sacrificed his coordination, tripping over a root and sprawling across the ground. He rolled on his back just in time to see the raptor jump for him.

Ben saw the raptor's body take the impact before he heard the shot fired. The raptor was pushed sideways by the force of the bullet, knocking it off balance and causing it to land several feet to the right of Ben before falling on it's side.

Ben scrambled to his feet hurriedly as Lucien came running up. Ben also saw the three people that had been cornered by the raptor coming over as well. As Lucien and the others' got there, the raptor tried to lift itself off of the ground. Lucien fired one shot into its head and the raptor collapsed, never to get up again. Ben looked at Lucien gratefully.

"Nice shot," He panted, "I owe you one." Lucien grinned back at him, clearly still pumped on adrenaline.

"You owe me a lot more than one." He said, slinging the rifle back on his shoulder. Ben looked at the three people they'd just saved. There was a shorter man with shaggy blonde hair, a taller, skinny guy with long, dark hair, and a beautiful young woman who didn't look as scared as she should given the circumstances. They all looked at each other for a moment. Finally the shorter guy spoke up.

"You know, for a bunch of people living in the 21st century, nobody really seems that surprised about encountering a velociraptoraptor in the woods."

"Utahraptor," Ben corrected automatically, "Late cretaceous era, I'd say. Full grown and male. Definitely one of the most dangerous creatures of the time." Lucien looked at him with confusion, Ben just shrugged. "I study paleontology in my free time, I like dinosaurs."

"That doesn't answer my question by the way." The blonde guy said, gesturing at the dead raptor. "I almost got killed by that thing, but I know why I'm not surprised to see it. What about all of you?" Ben looked at the scared group of people.

"Let's move this," He pointed to the raptor, "Somewhere where it won't be found by anyone else, and then we'll sit down and talk. We have a camp near here we can rest at." The blonde guy nodded.

"Fine, I'm Steve, by the way." He said, extending his hand. Ben shook it.

"I'm Ben Trent," he responded, "and the big man with the big gun is Lucien Bell." Lucien nodded to the others.

"We can finish introductions after we take care of this body." Lucien said, "Can anyone think of somewhere we can dump it?" Steve grinned as he looked at the others.

"I have just the place." He said with a smile.

After an hour of grunting, swearing, dragging and lifting, Ben and the other guys managed to get the raptor back to the anomaly site and shove it in. Now they were standing back, Lucien with his rifle trained on the anomaly, waiting for it to close.

Looking at the glowing ball of light, Ben was taken back to nine years before when he'd seen the same thing in the Forest of Dean. He looked over at Lucien and thought about what Steve had said. No one really had seemed that surprised about seeing a full grown raptor in the middle of Britain, including Lucien. He wanted to ask, but Lucien had ordered complete silence in order to focus on the anomaly.

Suddenly, the anomaly grew, expanding outwards. Ben took a step back in surprise as Lucien tightened his grip in his rifle. But as soon as it stretched out, the anomaly collapsed back in on itself, winking out of existence. Ben and the others let out a sigh of relief. Lucien put his rifle back on his shoulder while the dark haired boy, who Ben learned was named Darren, shook his head as if trying to stop thinking about the anomaly. Ben looked around at the exhausted group of people.

"Let's head back to our camp and we can swap stories." He suggested. The others nodded their agreement and Lucien led the way back to the camp.

XXXXX

Steve sat around the fire, holding a cup of coffee and looking at the other four people he'd just shared an unbelievable experience with. After a moment, the stockier guy, Ben, who'd distracted he raptor spoke up.

"Ok," He began, "Obviously we've all had experience with these time-portals before."

"What did you call them?" Darren asked suddenly.

"Time-portals." Ben answered, "Why, what do you call them?"

"They're referred to as anomalies." Steve cut in. "Everyone calls them anomalies."

"How do you know everyone calls them anomalies?" Ben asked. Steve sighed.

"There are bound to be people who just call them 'time-portals', but everyone in the know calls them anomalies."

Taylor made a skeptical noise. "And you two are 'in the know' " she asked condescendingly. Steve puffed out his chest in indignation.

"Yeah," he responded testily, "ever since we hacked into the ARC mainframe, we've been 'in the know' " Ben looked around with confusion, but Taylor and Lucien seemed impressed.

"I must have missed something," Ben said, looking at Steve, "but what's the ARC." Steve stared back in disbelief.

"I thought you knew about anomalies." He said, "Anyone who's ever had contact with an anomaly has met someone from the ARC." Ben shook his head.

"Not me," He stated, looking around at the others, "I met a woman called Abby who worked at the zoo and was going to take my lizard back to the zoo. She said my lizard was a brand new breed of lizard and she wanted to see where I found him, so I took her to the Forest of Dean and-"

"Wait!" Steve interjected suddenly, "You found the Forest of Dean anomaly?"

"I guess so, why?" Ben replied. Steve's eyes widened and Darren leaned forward.

"That was the first recorded anomaly." Darren told him, "The ARC was formed in the Forest of Dean. Nick Cutter, Stephen Hart, Connor Temple, Abby Maitland, Oliver Leek, they were the first people to try and figure out what the anomalies were, they were the original ARC team members." Steve punched the air in victory.

"This is so cool." He said, his voice getting louder with excitement, "You were there for the first anomaly, you met Professor Nick Cutter."

"I've met Cutter." Taylor cut in.

"So have I," Lucien added, "and Abby Maitland." Steve looked at the others with a look of shock.

"You all met Cutter?" He asked in amazement. They met the old-school ARC, before the invention of locking devices and EMDs. Darren shared his look of surprise.

"Your anomaly experiences were way before ours, then." Steve stated after a moment.

"You still haven't answered my question," Ben pressed, "What's the ARC and why is it so important?"

"It stands for the Anomaly Research Center." Darren explained, "They were the only people who knew about anomalies and it was their job to contain them and the creatures that came through."

"The dinosaurs?" Ben asked.

"It wasn't always dinosaurs," Taylor said, looking at the others, "I got trapped in the Silurian era with giant sand scorpions."

"It isn't always the past either," Lucien added, "I was attacked by some sort of future evolution of the sea lion."

"How did you get into the ARC's systems?" Taylor asked suddenly, "I would've thought they'd have people on guard for that."

"The ARC's been shut down." Steve said, shaking his head. "Do you all remember the day that wasn't real?" Ben and the others nodded. "That was something called convergence."

"We're not entirely sure about the science behind it," Darren cut in, "but basically the Earth tried to adjust itself, which is what caused the anomalies in the first place."

"And eventually, the adjustments culminated in convergence, which was hundreds of anomalies opening up all over the world." Steve finished, "Mass chaos and destruction."

"What's that have to do with the ARC?" Lucien asked.

"Well," Steve explained, "after convergence, there was a huge spike in anomalies. And then, all of a sudden, they stopped. No explanation as to why, they just stopped. After that, the ARC was shut down."

"This is perfect." Ben said suddenly, "All we have to do is find the old ARC members and tell them the anomalies are back." Steve shook his head sadly.

"I wish it were that easy."

"Why isn't it?" Taylor asked.

"We saw a note on each of the personnel files in the ARC database," Darren answered, "They're all under government surveillance."

"The government tried very hard to keep the anomalies secret." Steve added, "They don't want the old ARC running around again, especially when they think it's all over." Ben frowned, looking confused.

"There's no way the government would try to hide anomalies if they popped up again." He protested, "They'd have to reinstate the ARC." Steve leaned forward.

"Have any of you ever heard of Duncan Greene?" He asked, looking around. The others shook their heads.

"Exactly." Darren said, "After convergence, Duncan Greene went public. Said he had information about the dinosaurs, anomalies, everything. Went against the government's story about chemicals."

"Quite a few people were ready to believe him." Steve added, picking up the story. "Not everyone was believing the story about drugs and terrorists."

"I never heard anything about someone speaking out against the government's story." Lucien said, looking thoughtful.

"You have to know where to look." Steve replied, "It wouldn't have been covered on any major news network, but below the surface, Duncan was spreading the word about what really happened."

"We dismissed him as a conspiracy nut as well." Darren said, "We knew the dinosaurs were real, but we didn't think a lot of other people knew the truth as well."

"Then Duncan said he had a friend, Connor Temple, who knew a lot more about the anomalies than he did." Steve added. "We decided to find this guy."

"What happened?" Taylor asked with interest.

"It took us weeks to find him." Darren answered. "He'd gone off the grid a few years before convergence and he kept his location hidden. By the time we found out where he lived..."

"It was too late." Steve finished. "The whole building had burned to the ground."

"Duncan was never heard from again." Darren concluded. Lucien sat up straighter.

"You expect me to believe that the government killed a man for talking about anomalies and then burned the building he was staying in?"

"We're not one hundred percent sure he was killed." Darren corrected, "He stayed under the radar for years. It's possible he got out and burned the building to fake his own death."

"He had to have known someone would come after him for talking about anomalies, I'm sure he was prepared to run, we just don't know if he got away or not." Steve added, looking over everyone's shocked faces. "We just know that the ARC is under constant surveillance and the only man who knew anything outside of the ARC is missing in action, possibly dead. We're on our own here." Ben perked up.

"Wait a minute, what do you mean we?" He asked suddenly, "There is no we. _We_ were attacked by a raptor, that's it."

"Someone has to control these anomalies." Darren said angrily, "The five of us are the only people who know about them, it has to be us. Otherwise, people will get hurt."

"We'll get hurt if we try to keep doing this. We barely survived tonight!" Ben yelled back, temper rising.

"So what?" Darren asked, getting to his feet. "You're just going to go home and pretend this never happened? Meanwhile, creatures could be coming through all over Britain and killing hundreds of innocent people. Are you really that selfish?" Steve watched his friend with concern. He knew this was an important issue to Darren, but he'd also never seen him get this angry before. Luckily, Lucien stepped in.

"Look, everybody just calm down." He said soothingly, "Let's think about this." He looked at Steve, "Is there anything we actually can do about the anomalies?" Steve looked at Darren, who was still standing up, pacing slightly.

"Yes," Steve replied honestly, "Connor Temple discovered that an electrical current can lock the anomaly shut. He created a device that, while it couldn't close anomalies, it could keep creatures from getting out of it."

"If you know there's such a device, why didn't you bring it with you tonight?" Taylor asked.

Darren sat down suddenly, "Because we can't get it to work yet." He admitted.

"The blueprints on the database are for the original prototype Connor Temple designed." Steve explained, "We know by going through mission reports that the device underwent several upgrades and modifications. We're building the prototype, which is bound to be bulkier and less effective."

"Also," Darren added sullenly, still glaring at Ben, "Connor was funded by the government. I'm a freelance photographer and Steve works as tech support in a call center; our funds are a little more limited."

"So you've been trying to build your own locking device even though you didn't know there were any more anomalies?" Ben asked.

"We like to be prepared." Steve answered with a grin.

"So have you had any luck building something from the ARC?" Taylor asked, looking at Steve.

"Yes, actually," Steve responded proudly, pulling the detector out of his pocket."This is a handheld detector. It has a radius of one mile, but it works. We proved it tonight." Lucien held out his hand and Steve passed over the detector.

"It looks like a mutated SatNav." Lucien said turning it over in his hands. Steve laughed.

"Well, it basically is a mutated SatNav." He replied, "The original ARC detector worked like a game of Hot or Cold. The anomaly gives off radio interference, so they would walk around with their detector listening to a beeping sound. When the beeping got louder, they were close. I married the motherboard of an old SatNav to a basic detector, so when we find one, we get directions as opposed to a beeping." Ben looked impressed, as did the others.

"That's pretty well done." He complimented, "You two really are serious about controlling these anomalies, aren't you?" Steve and Darren nodded. "Well, I guess I'm in too." Ben looked directly at Darren, "You were right, someone has to help."

"As we proved tonight, you'll get yourselves killed if I'm not there." Lucien added, "Count me in."

"After I went through an anomaly, I asked Cutter if I could work with him someday." Taylor said, "I guess I'm getting my wish." Ben nodded, looking around at the others.

"I guess this makes us the new ARC team." He said. "Let's keep people safe."

XXXXX

The ringing was driving her crazy, she had to find some way to stop it. With a groan, Jessica Becker rolled over on one side and grabbed her phone off the bedside table. She looked at the time before answering the call, it was two in the morning.

"Hello?" She answered groggily, "Who is this?"

"Ah, Mrs. Parker, sorry, Mrs. Becker now, thank goodness you're up." Jess stared at the phone in confusion.

"Lester?" She asked after a moment, "What's wrong, why are you calling me at two in the morning?"

"It's my computer." He said after a moment, "I'm having a problem with it." Jess held in a monumental groan. Only her former boss would call this early to complain about a computer.

"There's nothing I can do about it now." She said, trying to keep the anger out of her voice, "I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"But it's the computer you gave me for Christmas." Lester said, slightly emphasizing the word _Christmas_. Jess sat up in bed straighter, 'the computer you gave me for Christmas' was their code. The anomalies had begun re-opening. Jess looked over at Becker, still sleeping soundly next to her.

"What kind of error is it?" She asked, trying to keep her voice level.

"It says there is a Benton virus." Lester responded. "There were some pop-ups earlier, but it's gone away now."

"Do you know if the anti-virus program I installed kicked in?" Jess asked, analyzing everything Lester had said. Benton had to refer to Benton woods, which were several miles out of town. And he said the pop-up had gone away, meaning the anomaly had closed.

"I'm not sure," Lester replied, "I hope so. It runs scans on my computer all the time, I think it's up to the challenge. I hope it is anyways." Jess nodded, even though Lester couldn't see her.

"Well, bring it to the cafe on West Rayne and Third and I'll take a look at it." Jess told him.

"Perfect," Lester replied, "I'll see you at nine."

"Eight," Jess replied, "not all of us are retired."

"Eight it is, then. See you tomorrow Mrs. Par- Becker." Lester hung up the phone.

Jess sank back into her bed, now too anxious to sleep. She hoped the two boys she'd given ARC access to were able to handle the anomaly. She felt horrible putting two innocent people in harm's way like this, but Matt had always felt the anomalies would come back, and he and Lester agreed, someone needed to be ready to respond. So Jess had mailed Connor's secret back door password to the boys, she hoped they had survived their ordeal. Jess moved closer to Becker, who instinctively put his arm around her in his sleep, and closed her eyes. Tomorrow, things were going to get a lot harder.

**AN:** Well, there you go. A bit different from _Primeval High_, but I think it'll turn out well. I don't plan on all of them being this long, but we'll see. Please review and let me know what you think.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Bryan Davis sat in his boat out on the middle of the lake and enjoyed the crisp, clean early morning air. He cast out his line, reeling it back in slowly, waiting for a bite. He checked his watch. It was only half past six, he could still enjoy the quiet serenity of the lake for a few more hours before other people started showing up. At fifty-three years old, Bryan couldn't understand the rush younger people were in all the time, they didn't know how to just sit and enjoy nature.

Bryan cast his line out again, waiting for the lure to sink to the bottom of the lake. As he reeled the line in, Bryan looked back to the banks of the lake, checking to make sure his truck was still parked. While he was looking away, his line gave a powerful jerk. Bryan grabbed the rod and pulled back, trying to set the hook. The fish pulled back as Bryan tried to reel it in. It had to be an enormous fish, it was putting up more of a fight than he had ever encountered in a fish before.

As he was battling with the fish, something hit the underside of his boat. Bryan, who had been standing up to get better leverage, was knocked to his knees, his rod flying out of his hand into the water. With a muttered curse, Bryan got to his feet and looked around, trying to see what had hit his boat. As he turned around, Bryan heard something rise up out of the water behind him.

Before he had a chance to turn to face the noise, something wet hit him around the midsection, sending him flying off of his boat. As he hit the water, Bryan felt something wrap around his chest, dragging him deeper into the water. Bryan thrashed wildly, trying to break the creature's grip on him, but it was too strong. Soon, Bryan's vision began clouding up and he began getting weaker. As his vision blacked out and the world went dark, Bryan Davis' last thought was about how big that fish must have been.

XXXXX

"So, how was hanging with your future brother-in-law?" Ryan asked as they sat down for lunch in the university cafeteria. Ben shrugged.

"It wasn't too bad." He replied honestly, "We went camping. Nothing really happened, we just talked." As he lied to his friend, Ben thought about the night a week ago that changed his life.

Before his camping trip with Lucien, he had been an average law student. He studied during the week, and studied more during the weekends. He really wasn't the type of person who wanted any type of adventure or excitement in his life. He barely even went out, and when he did have time, he just didn't want the extra hassle. But now, he was one of five people who were carrying the weight of stopping a force of nature on their shoulders.

Ben barely listened while Ryan talked animatedly about the hiking trip he'd just gotten back from, his mind was still focused on his conversation with Steve earlier in the week. They'd just managed to get a city-wide anomaly detector online and Steve had been explaining the basics of what it did.

"I hacked my way into three of the radio towers surrounding the city," Steve had told him, "so now, when an anomaly causes interference, it'll be picked up by our detector. And check this out." Steve pointed to an older cell phone that was wired into the detector. "When an anomaly is detected, this phone will text me the coordinates, which I will then forward to everyone else. It's brilliant."

Ben was still skeptical about how safe it was to pirate radio signals when they wanted to keep off of the government's radar, but he knew they didn't have much else of a choice. He was snapped out of his reverie by the sight of Taylor walking towards his table.

"Hey, Ben," She said lightly as she sat down next to him. Ben tried to keep the confusion out of his face. He didn't even know she went here. Ryan was looking at Taylor in surprise as well.

"Hi," Ryan said after a moment, "I'm Ryan, what's your name?"

"Taylor," She answered. Ryan nodded.

"How do you know Ben?" Ryan asked, looking between the two of them curiously. Ben tried to think of an excuse, but Taylor was already prepared.

"I met Ben at a club a few nights ago," she told him, "I'm guessing by his look of surprise, he forgot I told him I attend the university for veterinary school." Ben mentally chided himself, she had mentioned that, although it certainly hadn't been at a club. Unfortunately, Ryan knew Ben a little too well.

"I've never known Ben to go to a club before," He said, looking at Ben in surprise, "Which club was it?" Ben's mind raced as he tried to think of a club, but as usual, Taylor was already on it.

"Shoot," she pouted, looking at Ryan, "I forgot to grab a water, would you mind?" she held out a bill. Ryan looked confused at the sudden change in topic, but he shrugged.

"Sure," He said, standing up. "Don't worry about it, it's on me." As he walked off, Taylor's voice lowered and lost the slightly flirty tone she'd had with Ryan.

"Are you an idiot?" She asked angrily, "Why the hell haven't you been answering your phone? Steve's been trying to reach your for an hour." Ben checked his phone, he hadn't noticed anyone calling him. The battery was dead. Taylor sighed.

"You'll have to charge it later," She said, standing up. "C'mon, we've got to go, Steve found one." Ben's eyes widened as he bolted up, leaving his lunch on the table and following Taylor.

As Ben got into the passenger side of her car, Taylor handed him her phone.

"Here, Steve said for you to call him as soon as you could."

"Why?" Ben asked as she started the car up.

"No idea," Taylor responded, "He keeps calling you our fearless leader. I guess he thinks you're in charge." Ben was taken aback, he hadn't planned on being in charge. He thought that role would have gone to Steve, seeing as he had to most knowledge, or Lucien, who had much more leadership experience. Ben looked over at Taylor.

"Do you think I'm in charge?" He asked curiously. Taylor glared at him.

"No one's in charge of me." She stated firmly, "Now call Steve before he flips out again."

Ben punched in the number and Steve picked up after the first ring.

"Taylor," He said as a greeting, "Have you found Ben yet?"

"It's me, Steve." Ben answered, "My phone died, sorry. What's up?"

"We found one, but there's something wrong with it." Steve replied. Ben frowned.

"What do you mean, something wrong?"

"Here, listen to it" Ben heard a beep and then the sound of an anomaly. But Steve was right, something did sound off. It was muffled and slightly garbled. After a moment, Steve came back on the line.

"Based on the sound it's making and the location, Darren and I think it's underwater." Steve said. "If it is, then there's no telling how long it could have been opened, the water would have blocked the signal for a while." Ben sighed.

"Have you gotten the locking device working yet?" He asked.

"Not yet, but it would be useless here anyways." Steve replied, "I'm not putting an electrical current into a lake. That's just stupid." Ben sighed again, nothing was ever easy.

"Fine," He said after a moment, "We'll just meet up at the site and come up with something there. Have you spoken to Lucien yet?"

"Yeah, he's on his way. He'll get here about the same time as you do. We've been here for about twenty minutes and haven't noticed anything unusual."

"OK," Ben responded, "keep an eye out and stay safe, we'll see you there."

"You got it, boss." Steve said before he hung up. Ben handed Taylor back her phone. She gave him a strange look.

"I can see why he thinks you're in charge." She said after a minute. Ben frowned at her.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked, feeling defensive.

"You just take charge really well." She said after a moment. "It's not necessarily a bad thing, you just sort of gave orders without really giving orders. It was good." She added as an afterthought. Ben frowned again, he still didn't see himself as the leader, but here he was.

Taylor pulled into a parking lot next to a red pickup truck and the pair got out of her car. As they got out, Darren walked over to them, his camera still slung across his neck.

"There's something you need to see." He said to Ben as he walked up. "I think we found something strange." Ben noticed Darren didn't even look at Taylor. Surprisingly, she seemed upset about it.

"It's this way." Darren said, turning around a walking off. Ben shared a look of confusion with Taylor and followed behind him. After a moment of walking in silence, Taylor sped up to walk next to Darren.

"Hi Darren," She began, looking over at him. Ben was surprised to notice that her voice seemed nicer and softer than he'd ever heard it before. Darren barely looked at her and mumbled a reply. Seemingly undaunted, Taylor pressed on.

"What did you find?" She asked, looking around to see if she could find anything strange.

"A boat." Darren replied, "An empty boat." Ben frowned.

"What's so strange about a boat?" He asked, catching up and walking next to Darren.

"It was empty." Darren repeated, "It looked like it had washed up on the shore, not pulled up."

"So, what, you think something happened to the person who owned the boat?" Taylor asked.

"I do," Darren replied, looking at Taylor for the first time, "But Steve's not so sure. We were waiting for everyone else so we could get your opinions. That's the boat there." Ben looked where Darren was pointing and saw Steve standing next to a small fishing boat with his foot on the prow. Next to Steve, Ben could see Lucien looking at the edge of the water with a worried expression

Steve nodded as Ben and the others walked up, motioning them closer.

"Take a look at this," He said, holding an open tackle box towards them. Ben looked inside and saw someone's cell phone, wallet, keys, and a wedding band. Ben looked at Steve with confusion.

"What's all this supposed to be?" He asked, gesturing to the box. Steve looked at them with a sad expression.

"I found this in the boat." He explained, "I could believe that someone would leave their boat on the bank for at least an hour, and I could believe that they could even beach their boat badly, causing it to drift away. But I don't see how anyone would leave their wallet and car keys alone in their boat." Steve looked somberly at the others, "I think we're dealing with our first creature kill." Ben looked at the box again.

"Do we know who this person was?" He asked. Steve shook his head. With a sigh, Ben reached into the box and pulled out the wallet. He opened it up.

"It says his name was Bryan Davis." Ben said, showing the others the man's driver's license. Everyone looked down for a moment, lost in their own private thoughts. Finally, Lucien broke the silence.

"Can we move away from the water line, please?" He asked suddenly, "It makes me uncomfortable." Ben and the others looked at him in confusion. Lucien sighed.

"My anomaly encounter involved being dragged down a man hole, through an underwater canal, and then left to float, trapped under a grate." He said, angrily, "So it should be taken for granted that I don't like the water. Add to that, the building I was held in is right over there." Ben looked to see the squat gray warehouse Lucien was pointing to across the lake and behind the docks. "So I think I'm entitled to be a little nervous about being here again." Lucien folded his arms and moved away from the water. "Especially if we don't know what's in there or how to deal with it." The others all looked at Ben, and he jerked his head after Lucien, indicating he thought they should follow him and get away from the shore. As the group moved, Ben realized that Taylor was right, he was taking charge without even realizing it.

As they moved farther away from the lake side, Ben looked at Steve, who he realized he was rapidly relying on as the idea man.

"What do you think?" He asked quietly, "Is there anything we can do about the anomaly?" Steve shook his head.

"Not if it's underwater." He replied, "And if there is a creature incursion, we have no real way of dealing with it." Ben thought for a moment.

"I want you and Darren to go through the old ARC mission reports. Look for any aquatic anomalies, specifically the one that happened here with Lucien. See what they did and what we could do." Steve nodded, walking off to his car, motioning for Darren to come with him.

Ben hurried to catch up with Lucien who was walking ahead in silence, lost in thought. Ben touched his arm to get his attention.

"Listen," He said in a low voice, "if you want to sit this one out, I understand. It's no problem." Lucien shook his head.

"No, I can handle this." He replied firmly, "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine." They reached Lucien's car and Lucien leaned against the driver's side door. Ben faced him.

"Hey, can I ask you something?" Ben asked. Lucien nodded. "Why is everybody listening to me? How did I become the guy in charge, I thought it would have been you." Lucien looked at him for a moment.

"I had my fill of leadership in the Army." He said after a moment. "Besides, you just stepped in, you're a natural leader." Ben frowned.

"I never thought of myself as any type of leader before." He said, looking down.

"Look, man," Lucien said, standing up straight, "there are two types of leaders, those who demand that you follow them, and those who take charge of the situation that others just gravitate to in a time of crisis. You've proven yourself to be the second type, and that's the type of man I'd want leading this operation." Lucien put his hand on Ben's shoulder, "You're doing fine in charge, better than some I've had in the past. As long as you respect the people you command, they'll respect you; and if they respect you, they'll follow you anywhere." Ben nodded, glad he'd gone to Lucien.

"Thanks." Ben said. Lucien nodded and leaned against the car again.

"No problem." After a moment of silence, Ben looked over at the others.

"Did you eat lunch?" He asked Lucien. Lucien looked taken aback by the question.

"No, I didn't have time, why?" He answered.

"I didn't get to finish either, and I don't think any of the others have eaten yet." Ben responded, "I came here with Taylor, I'll go get her and we'll bring back lunch. Keep an eye on Steve and Darren, they're going over old aquatic anomalies to see what worked and what didn't." Ben began to leave, but walked back, leaning closer to Lucien. "You don't happen to have a gun with you, do you?" Lucien nodded.

"9mm pistol in the glove compartment." He said, patting his car. He gave Ben a serious look, "Don't worry, if the creature can come on land, I'll take care of it." Ben nodded gravely.

"Good, just remember it is broad daylight." After giving his final warning, Ben walked off to where Taylor stood by her car, watching Darren take photographs of the lake.

XXXXX

Lucien sat leaning against the hood of his car, watching the water line intently. He was so focused on the water he almost didn't hear someone walking up to the car until they were right next to it. He turned and saw Taylor standing in front of his car, looking at him.

"I thought you went with Ben to go get food." Lucien said, looking at her in surprise. Taylor shrugged.

"I gave him the keys, I think he can manage it on his own." Lucien laughed.

"You're more trusting than I am." He told her. She shrugged again and leaned against the car next to him. They stood there quietly for a moment.

"This must be pretty hard for you." She said after a moment, "To be back at the same place you were held before." Lucien stayed quiet for a moment.

"Yeah," He said, still looking out. "It's not easy, but it has to be done." Taylor nodded, looking out at the lake side as well.

"I actually went through an anomaly." She said after a moment. "Followed my dog. I nearly got stuck on the other side as well." Lucien looked over at her in surprise. He'd never asked about any of their respective experiences and they'd never asked about his. "I'm just saying I know what it feels like to be stuck and be sure you were going to die." She added. "I'm here if you need to talk." Lucien nodded, mildly touched by her concern.

"Thanks, Taylor." He said, "I'll keep that in mind." She nodded as Steve and Darren came walking hurriedly up to them.

"What happened to the fearless leader?" Steve asked as he reached them.

"He went to go get lunch, he'll be back soon." Lucien responded. Steve looked surprised but quickly brushed it off.

"OK," he started, "we've been going through old mission reports from underwater anomalies. And before you ask," He added, looking at Lucien, "this isn't the same one that you encountered. That one was in the warehouse that you were taken to, this one is underwater."

"It could still be the same time period, though." Darren cut in, "We can't know for sure until we see what we're dealing with."

"And speaking of that," Steve said, looking directly at Lucien again, "you're a lot tougher than you look." Lucien gave him a look of surprise.

"What do you mean by that?" He asked. Steve just grinned at him.

"We saw the report on your anomaly." Darren explained, "You went through some pretty rough stuff. You're lucky to have survived." Lucien shook his head.

"I'm sure you both went through just as much as I did." He replied, slightly flattered that they were impressed by what he remembered as a lot of shaking and praying to God. Steve shook his head.

"Not really," He told them, "We met up with Connor Temple and he asked us to help him. He got us to make a sulfur compound the _Therocephalians_ reacted badly to, and we doused them in it." Steve shrugged. "We really didn't do much of anything." Lucien looked at the pair and tried to get back to the topic.

"Well now you have the chance to do more." He said casually. "Now, what can we do for this anomaly."

"Nothing." Darren responded flatly. Steve nodded.

"Unfortunately, he's right." Steve said, "Whenever there's been an underwater alert in the past, they just barely managed to survive by dumb luck and random chance."

"There's really nothing we can do." Darren added, looking at Lucien and Taylor.

"What about closing the lake?" Taylor asked, "Making sure other people don't get hurt. Isn't that was this is all about." Steve looked thoughtful.

"We could tell people the lake is closed." He said after a while, "We've got some official looking vests in the boot of the car that look authentic." Lucien looked at the pair with mild amusement.

"Why do you have official vests in the boot of your car?" He asked with curiosity.

"Occasionally I direct traffic when it gets too badly backed up and we can't get anywhere." Steve told him casually. Taylor frowned.

"I think that's illegal." She said with a look of concern.

"It is." Darren responded with a grin. "And so is telling people the lake is closed, but it doesn't look like we have a choice at this point." Lucien saw that the other three were all looking at him and realized that they assumed he was the man in charge in Ben's absence. Lucien knew he'd have to make a decision.

"Grab your vests." He told Steve and Darren, "We're closing down the lake."

XXXXX

Steve looked at his best friend and gave him a giddy grin. He and Darren were both standing in their emergency traffic vests and the first car was driving up to park at the lake. Steve made an effort to wipe the smile from his face and adopt a stern expression. He held his hand out in front of the car and walked to the window.

"Excuse me, sir." He said as he reached the driver. "The lake's been shut down today, I'm afraid you're gonna have to head out." The man in the car frowned.

"I work here," He said with confusion, "I'm a water quality specialist. No one said anything to me about the lake being closed." Steve tried to keep the panic out of his voice as he tried to think up an excuse.

"There was a spike in the pH level." Darren supplied from behind him. "We're trying to keep the lake clear so we can fix the problem." The water specialist frowned again and pointed over to where Ben, Lucien, and Taylor were relaxing by the cars enjoying their lunch.

"What about them?" He asked, suspicion beginning to show on his face. "Why are they still here?"

"They're with us." Steve answered calmly. "They're part of our team."

"They don't look like they work with water levels." The man stated, looking at Steve and Darren with definite suspicion now. "Can I see some ID?" He asked, holding out his hand.

Darren looked ready to panic, but Steve was in his element now, bull crap was like a second language to him.

"Can we see your ID, please?" Steve asked, turning the question back on the man. The water specialist looked surprised.

"Why do you want to see my ID?" He asked, beginning to look concerned.

"The way I see it," Steve said, leaning in and putting his elbows on the man's car door. "We get a call that something is wrong with the water levels down here, and then a man who claims to deal specifically with water just rolls in and tried to gain access. Sounds fishy to me." Darren nodded, catching on to Steve's train of thought.

"You can just drive away." Darren said in a calming voice, "If you go now, we don't have to see any ID and we won't ask any questions." Steve almost cried with joy, Darren was playing good cop, bad cop with him.

"Or," Steve cut back in, lowering his voice, "You can stay here and continue to cause a problem. But if you do that, I can't tell you how many charges I could get you on." The water specialist was beginning to look worried by this point.

"I don't want any trouble." He said, his voice wavering.

"We know you don't." Darren told him, "Just drive along and there won't be." Steve stood up and moved away from the car, gesturing for it to turn around and go. Luckily, the man did, and as soon as he was out of sight, Steve let out a whoop of joy.

"I can't believe that worked." He told Darren with a wild grin. Darren smiled back.

"Dumb luck and random chance." He said, quoting Steve's earlier words.

"C'mon," Steve said, "I'm tired of impersonating a police officer, let's get one of the others to take over." Darren nodded and the pair headed over to the rest of the team.

"So what's up with you and Taylor?" Steve asked his friend. Darren blushed and looked down at his feet as they walked.

"I don't know," He admitted, "I mean, she's beautiful, but I don't know that much about her."

"Have you tried talking to her, you know, find out about her?" Steve asked his hopeless friend. "Ask her out for a drink." Darren looked at Steve with surprise.

"I don't think she'd be interested in going out for drinks with me." He said, running a hand through his hair. "Why would she even want to talk to me."

"I have no idea." Steve said, looking at his friend, "After all, you are pretty pathetic." Darren stopped and glared at Steve. Steve stopped too and turned around.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Darren asked, his voice rising with anger. "I'm not pathetic at all."

"Oh yeah?" Steve said, raising his voice as well, "What can you actually do, Darren? Why would anyone think you're interesting?"

"People would think I'm interesting because I'm a damn good photographer, I'm a nice guy, friendly, and I know just as much about these anomalies as you do." Darren yelled back. Steve suddenly lowered his voice back to it's normal level and grinned at Darren.

"See," He said cheerily, "That's why she'd want to talk to you; you're a pretty awesome guy. Ask her out." Steve turned back around and began walking towards the others, who were all watching the pair with concern. After a moment, Darren caught back up with him.

"I can't tell if you're the worst friend I've ever had, or the best." He said as he fell back into step beside Steve. Steve gave him a cheeky grin.

"Easily the best." He assured him. "No one else even comes close." Darren nodded.

"Yeah, easily the best." He said, "And Steve, thanks." Steve just grinned as the pair walked up to the others.

XXXXX

Darren sat next to Steve on the hood of Steve's car, trying not to seem like he was staring at Taylor. When he and Steve had gotten back, they'd given their vests to Ben and Lucien, who were now standing neat the front entrance, keeping people out of the lake.

Although he'd been feeling confident while talking to Steve, now that he was actually face to face with Taylor, Darren still couldn't speak much. Luckily, Steve was holding up the conversation just fine without him.

"So whatever happened to the ARC team?" Taylor asked. Darren sat up straighter as Steve looked at him. The old ARC members had always interested him, and he'd made it his mission to find out as much about them as he could, while Steve worried more about the anomalies and technology.

"Who do you want to know about?" Darren asked, thinking back to the files he'd read over and over.

"Nick Cutter." Taylor answered immediately. Darren could tell that the old team leader had been on her mind since the first anomaly. Darren gave her an expression of sorrow.

"Professor Nick Cutter was killed three years ago." He said after a moment. Taylor looked devastated.

"How?" She asked after a moment of shocked silence. "Was it a creature?" Darren shook his head.

"We don't know who it was, they're only referred to as 'Enemy No. 1' in the records. Whoever he or she is, their name isn't given. We just know they had some sort of connection to Cutter before the ARC." Darren looked at Taylor, who was still in shock. "I'm sorry."

Taylor nodded, looking shaken. "It's fine, he was... he was a good man. Saved my life when I was younger." Darren got off of the hood on an impulse and sat next to Taylor, putting his arm around her in support. He ignored Steve's look of surprise and gave Taylor time to compose herself. After a few minutes, she shook her head.

"What about Stephen Hart?" She asked, looking between Steve and Darren. Unfortunately, she caught Steve's wince. Taylor sighed and looked down.

"Him too?" She asked sadly, looking at Darren. He nodded.

"Stephen Hart died a few months before Cutter." Darren told her apologetically. "There was some sort of incident with one of the ARC team and Enemy No. 1. Apparently, the ARC liason with the Home Office, Oliver Leek, started collecting the dangerous creatures; and when the rest of the team went to shut him down, Stephen sacrificed himself to trap the predators in the same room." Darren looked at Taylor again, she looked like she was on the verge of tears.

"He died like a hero." Steve added unexpectedly, "According to the records, he stopped Cutter from doing it himself. He saved the rest of the ARC team single-handedly." Steve paused for a moment. "He must have been a good man." Taylor nodded.

"He was," she said, "they both were."

The three of them sat quietly for a few minutes. Suddenly, Steve perked up and looked where Ben and Lucien were standing.

"Oh not good." He muttered under his breath. Taylor and Darren turned to see where his was looking. A police car had pulled up and an officer had gotten out of the car and was talking to Ben and Lucien with a very serious expression on his face. Darren shot up, shooting out ideas as they came to him.

"Steve," he said, snapping Steve out of his fear induced shock. "Go over there and find out what's going on." Steve looked shocked at the suggestion. "You're the one with the silver tongue." Darren reasoned. "Go work your magic. Taylor, go with him." Taylor nodded, getting up as well.

"Where are you going?" She asked. Darren pointed to the boat.

"We've got an abandoned boat with someone's stuff in it and we're guarding the lake. I'm going to move the man's things to his truck so it's not so suspicious." Taylor hurriedly nodded again and grabbed Steve by the arm, moving him towards the others.

As soon as they'd moved away, Darren headed to the boat, trying to look inconspicuous. When he got there. he grabbed the tackle box with the man's possessions in it and walked calmly to the red truck that had been there all day.

As he got to the truck, Darren looked back at the water on a whim. He noticed an odd churning on the surface of the lake, near the shore directly in front of Steve and the others. Suddenly, an enormous creature exploded out of the water and moved with surprising speed towards the people standing a few hundred feet in front of it. Darren recognized the creature at once, it was one of the Mer creatures, future evolutions of the sea lion. Lucien had encountered Mer creatures when he was younger and now they were back.

The policemen and Darren's teammates scattered as the Mer creature charged at them. Except for Lucien, who was stuck frozen in place, staring at the creature with a look of terror worse that Darren had ever seen before. Darren shared his fear, he tried to force himself to move, to do something, but his legs wouldn't obey. He saw Taylor run back and grab Lucien's arm, tugging on him in vain to get him to move. As the creature got no more than ten feet away, Lucien moved, running with Taylor as the creature got to them.

Unfortunately, the creature was close enough to take a swipe at them, even if it wasn't agile enough to catch them. Lucien, with reflexes no doubt born in the Army training grounds, evaded the flipper as he ran, but Taylor wasn't as lucky. The creature's flipper caught her by the midsection and sent her sprawling backwards. Lucien turned to help her, but the creature moved in his way and roared, causing Lucien to move back. When Darren saw that Taylor wasn't moving and the creature was lumbering towards her, something inside him snapped. He wasn't going to let a creature kill another innocent person just because he thought he couldn't do anything about it.

Darren tore open the tackle box and pulled out Bryan Davis' truck keys. He placed his camera on the ground and got into the driver's seat, revving the engine to life. The creature looked up at Darren and Darren saw the understanding in its eyes. As Darren revved the engine again, the creature moved past Taylor to stand in between Darren and her. Without thinking about the possible repercussions, Darren floored the accelerator.

As the truck raced towards the creature, it roared a challenge to Darren. As the landscape sped by and the creature got closer, Darren gave a wild yell, a mixture of fear and sheer protective rage. As the creature leaned back to roar again, Darren hit it full on in the chest.

The impact was instantaneous, he felt like he'd hit a solid two ton wall. As his body was launched forward, the air bag deployed, cushioning the impact slightly. Darren bounced off of the front of the airbag and he was pushed back into his seat, his head colliding with the head rest. At the collision, stars erupted in Darren's field of vision and the world went black for a moment.

After what felt like a few moments of darkness, a light came back on, blinding him for a moment. Darren couldn't think clearly, the whole world seemed fuzzy and muffled. A face appeared in his field of vision, but he still couldn't see it clearly. Darren could make out blond hair, and his first thought was Steve, but the hair was too long.

Taylor's concerned face slowly swam into focus. She shined a small penlight into his eyes again. She was so pretty, even when she was worried over something. Darren racked his groggy brain for what would have her worried.

"Don't be sad," He slurred, looking at her lazily, "cheer up, have a drink with me." As his mind still tried to regain focus, Darren could see a look of confusion added to the concern. Suddenly, another blond head pushed into his field of vision.

"Is he alright?" Steve asked, looking between Darren and Taylor with concern. "He's going to be OK, right?" Darren looked at his scared looking friend.

"Don't worry buddy." Darren said, giving Steve a wide smile. "I haven't seen you this scared since we saw those ther- thero-, dinosaurs." Darren gave Steve another wide grin. "Why's everybody so worried?" Steve looked at him in concern.

"You just rammed a truck into the Mer creature that tried to kill all of us." Steve told him, "You remember doing that don't you?" Darren blinked a few times, the fog in his head starting to clear.

"Yeah," He said, beginning to feel his injuries now that the endorphins were wearing off. "Yeah, I remember that. Where's Taylor, is she OK?"

"I'm right here, Darren." Taylor said, taking his hand. Darren nodded, he remembered talking to her a just a moment ago.

"What about the creature?" Darren asked, feeling his mind come back up to speed.

"You hurt it pretty bad when you hit it, but it survived." Steve said. Suddenly the sound of gun shots filled the air. Steve grinned, "I think Lucien just exorcized some inner demons." Darren tried to nod, but it hurt to move his head. Taylor noticed his wince of pain.

"What else hurts?" She asked, looking more concerned.

"My everything," He said, trying not to move any more than he had to. "Where's Ben?" He asked, trying to look around.

"He's talking with one of the cops, trying to come up with a cover story." Steve explained, "Once they realized that the Mer creature could have killed a lot more people and that you risked your life to stop it, they became pretty cooperative." He grinned. "This'll just be another traffic accident and that creature will be cut up and incinerated."

"What about the anomaly?" Darren asked, watching the water line carefully for another creature.

"It disappeared about three minutes before the creature came on land." Taylor said.

"Lucien thinks that's what brought it out." Steve added. Lucien walked over to the car where Darren was still trapped.

"You did good." Lucien said as he got closer, "You saved all of our lives back there. That was quick, if stupid, thinking." Darren tried to laugh, but it hurt too much. Lucien seemed to notice.

"I've already spoken with Charlie and Ross, the coppers." Lucien told Darren, "Charlie has a brother in law that's a paramedic, he's bringing the ambulance down now. If anyone asks, you were hit head on by an eighteen wheeler and the driver ran. Charlie and Ross will make the paperwork disappear and before you know it, nobody but us remembers this at all."

Darren nodded, thankful that the police were as helpful as they were. Soon Ben joined the others and the five of them waited in silence for the paramedics, Taylor still holding Darren's hand.

XXXXX

"Do we really have to do this ourselves?" Steve asked for the hundredth time.

"Yes," Taylor replied shortly, "Now stop asking."

"I have a friend in the hospital." Steve said, looking at Taylor, "He could have a concussion."

"He doesn't have a concussion." She told him, again, "I checked."

"You're a vet," Steve countered, "not a doctor. You're not even a real vet yet, you're still in school."

"Will you calm down." Ben told Steve testily, "Lucien's with him, and Charlie and Ross. He'll be fine." Ben straightened the front of his police vest. "Now act professional, we're cops." Steve nodded as Taylor rang the doorbell.

She knew the others didn't understand why doing this themselves was such a big deal to her, but thankfully they understood enough to come with her.

"Wait," Steve said suddenly, looking at Ben. "Am I Ross, or am I Charlie?" Ben frowned, then groaned.

"I have no idea." He said, pulling out the police badges their new friends on the force had lent them. "I'm Ross." Ben said, "So you're Charlie."

"Good," Steve replied, "I can never remember."

Taylor shushed the pair as she heard the deadbolt unlocking and the front door opened. The woman looked to be in her late forties, with pulled back brown hair and a confused expression on her face. Taylor stepped up.

"Good evening ma'am," She said, trying to look confident, "are you Mrs. Davis?" The woman nodded, eyeing the police vests Ben and Steve were wearing with growing concern.

"We need to talk to you about your husband, Bryan Davis." Taylor continued. "May we come in?" Mrs. Davis nodded again, she seemed to know what was happening and her words were failing her. She moved aside and let the trio in. As the door shut behind them and they were led to the sitting room, Taylor thought about the real reason why they were working against the anomalies. It wasn't to see dinosaurs, or to make new scientific discoveries; it was to help keep people safe, to make sure everyone got home at the end of the day. And when that didn't happen, then it was their responsibility to comfort the victims loved ones, whether it was a poor woman who expected her husband home by noon, or a scared step father who just wanted to see his daughter again. That was what the ARC was about, helping people who'd been affected by the anomalies in any way they could. Just like Cutter would.

"I'm so sorry to be the one to tell you this," Taylor began, "but your husband passed away in a boating accident this morning."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

It was always terror birds. No matter where he went, there were always terror birds. And they were never happy to see him. Danny Quinn, former ARC leader, sprinted through the sparse savanna landscape of the Pliocene era. As he ran, he tightened his grip on Molly, preparing for the inevitable fight to survive. While he was running from the large, flightless birds right behind him, Danny saw an impossible glint over the top of a dune to his right. He knew what that glint was, he just never thought he'd see one again. With a quick feint left, followed by a hard turn to the right, Danny was off like a shot, running for the crest of the dune.

Luckily, years spent running for his life from prehistoric predators had honed his body into an unstoppable machine, and he soon began to get a small lead on the terror birds. As he reached the top of the dune and ran down. Danny could see the object of his dreams gleaming in the bright midday sunlight ahead of him. After hearing one last screech from his ravenous trio of hunters, Danny ran through the anomaly, unsure of what he would find, but ready to face it all the same.

XXXXX

"Steve, get those people into the back." Ben yelled, trying to make himself heard over the commotion the baby Iguanodon was causing. The four foot tall Iguanodon in question swung it's tail and knocked over another rack of movies.

Ben looked around the movie store. He had Lucien keeping people, and the baby dinosaur, inside, while Taylor and Darren tried to calm it down. Meanwhile, he upped the frequency on the signal jammer Steve had developed to keep people from calling anyone during an incursion. Steve was corralling the frightened customers and employees into the storeroom until the baby was taken care of. Ben allowed himself a small smile, after only one month after the Mer creature incident, they were already working as a fully bonded team.

"Gotcha!" Darren yelled suddenly. Ben turned to see what he'd done and immediately burst into laughter. To avoid the dangerous thumb claw the Iguanodon had been waving around, Darren had put the four foot dinosaur into a full nelson. He crouched behind it wearing an enormous smile, holding on while the baby writhed trying to get free.

Taylor moved to one side and secured its arm by sliding on one of the claw gloves Darren had created. Using discarded parts of shark suits, which were designed to withstand shark bites, Darren had stitched together a glove that could be slid over most clawed creatures hands, allowing the team to stop worrying every time they tranquilized a creature that it was going to get back up when they weren't looking.

Taylor stood back and allowed Lucien to tranquilize the dinosaur with a syringe to the neck. Steve walked away from the storeroom door and clapped his friend on the back.

"Good job with the nelson." He congratulated, "Looks like that one season of wrestling team finally paid off." Ben and the others looked at Darren in shock.

"You wrestled?" Taylor asked, looking surprised. Darren shrugged.

"Only for one season," He replied, "It wasn't really my thing." Ben looked down at the baby Iguanodon that was now passed out on the floor.

"OK," He said, looking at the others, "Darren, make sure you get a picture and document it." Darren nodded as he took the lens cap off of his camera. "Lucien, after Darren gets the photo, take this poor guy back to the anomaly and let him go. Taylor, you go with him."

"And Steve," Steve said, looking dramatic, "you go tell a room full of people that they didn't just see a dinosaur trash the shop. And be creative. And make sure they believe you. And don't hit on any of the traumatized women. And-"

"Stop being a smart ass." Ben finished with a grin. "You wouldn't need so many rules if you could just tell people something that makes sense."

"I do," Steve argued, walking back to the storeroom. "my stories always make sense."

"What about the time you told that McDonald's employee that her fridge had been attacked by a pack of deranged rabbits?" Taylor asked

"Or when the woman asked how her front door had been smashed in and asked why we were in her house, you told her we'd been chasing a rhino that got out through her kitchen window." Lucien added, hoisting the Iguanodon onto his shoulders.

"That one was actually true," Ben said, grinning at Lucien, "From a certain point of view."

"OK, fine," Steve said loudly, holding his hands up in defeat, "Occasionally my stories are a bit hard to believe, but do you know how hard it is to cover up a rampaging dinosaur?"

"That's what I pay you for, isn't it?" Ben asked, still grinning, "Now go lie to the uninformed populace." Steve gave a dramatic bow and walked into the storeroom, closing the door behind himself.

"Since when did we get paid?" Darren asked, screwing the lens cap back onto his camera. Ben gave a look of fake shock.

"I bought you dinner just last week." He said, trying to look offended.

"I remember you getting everyone a honey bun out of a vending machine." Taylor added, preparing to leave with Lucien.

"But that's all you ate, so it counts." Ben argued.

"That's all we ate because we spent the rest of the night chasing a herd of Stegosaurus around a storage facility." Lucien said, walking out the door. Ben looked away as Darren grabbed Taylor's arm.

"Be careful." He murmured. Taylor smiled back at him.

"I always am." She replied, giving him a quick kiss. "I'll be back as soon as the anomaly closes." Darren nodded as she walked out of the door after Lucien.

Darren walked over to Ben and stood next to him, both of them watching the storeroom door.

"How long do you think it'll take him to come up with a cover story that covers all of the angles?" Ben asked, still watching the door.

"Given that most people saw the Iguanodon, and over half of them tried and failed to record it on their phones, plus the fact that he's been in there for three minutes already, I give him three more minutes tops." Ben looked at Darren in surprise.

"You want to put a little money on that?" Ben asked

"Five pounds?"

"Works for me."

Two minutes and forty-three seconds later, Steve walked out of the storeroom, leading the group of tired and scared looking people behind him. Ben and Darren stayed silent, they'd learned by now to wait for Steve to tell them the cover story instead of asking it.

Silently, the group of shoppers and workers left the store, leaving Ben, Steve, and Darren standing alone. After a moment, Steve broke the silence.

"Did you know that meerkats can get rabies?" He asked. Ben and Darren began laughing uncontrollably.

"You didn't," Ben said, struggling for breath, "there's no way you got twenty plus people to belive a baby Iguanodon was a rabid meerkat in less than six minutes." Steve looked surprised.

"Was I under six?" He asked, looking at Darren. At Darren's nod, Steve smiled to himself. "That's a new record." Ben pulled out a five pound note as Steve walked away to look at the wreckage. Darren shook his head.

"Keep it," He said, pushing Ben's hand away, "Put it towards your 'team dinner' fund."

Steve laughed while looking through the scattered DVDs. "Is he still trying to pass off those honey buns as dinner?" He asked, looking at the back of a cover. "Hey Darren, do we have this one?" As Darren went over to see, Ben cut in.

"No," Ben told the pair loudly, "You are not stealing a movie just because they won't notice."

"Well maybe I'll buy it with that paycheck you aren't giving me." Steve shot back.

"No." Ben repeated, "C'mon, we have standards."

"Speak for yourself." Steve muttered as he stood up, tossing the case aside. At that moment, Taylor and Lucien came jogging back into the store.

"Anomaly's closed." Lucien said, "But the copppers on on the way." Ben nodded.

"Let's get out of here." Ben said, looking at his team. They rushed out of the store and piled into their respective cars, driving away as the police sirens got closer to the demolished movie store. It had been yet another successful mission.

XXXXX

It was always something. Steve groaned as he forwarded the location of the newest anomaly to the rest of the team. Unfortunately, he still had to work.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Perkins." Steve said into the headset as he grabbed the handheld detector, "What did you say it was doing again?" While listening to Mr. Perkins describe what sounded like the effects of a standard malware program, Steve snagged his keys off the pegboard and went out to the car. He got into his car, tossing his equipment in the backseat.

Steve started the car up and began backing out of the driveway.

"Hello?" Mr. Perkins asked, sounding confused, "Are you still there?"

"Still here, sir. It sounds like you need a new virus protection." Steve responded. His phone began to vibrate, someone was calling him. As Mr. Perkins began to respond, Steve cut him off. "I'm sorry sir, I need to put you on hold for a moment." Steve pulled the headset off and put it on the dashboard while turning the radio up to full volume. He answered his phone.

"Steve here." He said, trying to make himself heard over the radio, but unheard by Mr. Perkins, who seemed to be singing along with the music.

"It's Ben," The fearless leader told him tersely, "I can't get a response from Darren or Taylor, are they with you?"

"No such luck." Steve replied, rapidly switching stations as the DJ came back on.

"Fine, well, try to get in cont- can you turn down the music? It's hard enough trying to focus without having to tune out Elvis Presley as well." Ben sounded stressed and harried.

"Have some respect for the King." Steve responded, "and no, I can't turn it down, I'm using it for hold music."

"What?" Ben asked, sounding confused. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"No time to explain, boss." Steve said, checking the directions to the anomaly site, "I'll see you there, good luck with Darren and Taylor." Steve hung up his phone and grabbed the headset, turning the radio back down.

"Hello again, Mr. Perkins, I'm back. Now about that problem."

XXXXX

Darren sat leaning back against Taylor's couch watching a movie, Taylor snuggled up beside him. As the movie progressed, Darren began thinking about the amazing turn for the better his life had taken.

When he finally got a photograph of a live dinosaur, that had been impressive. When he had helped form the new ARC, that had been even better. But when he'd rammed a truck into the Mer creature and asked his beautiful teammate out for a drink, that had been the crowning moment of his life.

Darren thought back to his time in the hospital, when she'd asked him if he remembered what he'd said immediately after the collision. Darren had panicked, he couldn't remember much of anything after he made the decision to ram the creature and he was terrified that he'd said something stupid. Luckily, having known Steve for years had given Darren some small ability in the art of bull crap, and he'd told her that he remembered everything.

That seemed to have been the right choice as she immediately brightened up. Then she told Darren that she would wait until he was feeling up to it to go out for their drink. Darren had frozen in fear as he realized what he must have asked her, but before he could say anything, the other team members poured into the room, all continuing to check up on him.

After everyone but Steve had left, Darren confided in his friend what he'd done. Steve, as usual, made a joke out of it. He actually made several jokes out of it. But eventually, he helped Darren see the positive side of the situation, namely that he'd already asked her out and she'd already said yes. So when he'd gotten out of the hospital, they'd gone out for a drink, and now they were dating, and Darren felt like the luckiest man on Earth.

Midway through the movie, Darren looked around. He could have sworn he heard something. After a few more moments, Darren heard it for sure.

"Do you hear that?" He asked Taylor. She looked at him with a quizzical expression.

"I don't hear anything." She replied. Darren frowned, it sounded like it was coming from the table behind him where Taylor had set her purse.

"I think it's coming from your purse." He said after a moment. Suddenly, Taylor's eyes widened.

"My phone's still on vibrate." She said. Darren was confused until he realized what the implications of not being able to hear their phones was. He pulled his out of his pocket and groaned.

"It's been on silent," He said, worried, "And I've missed five calls from Ben, four from Steve, and two from Lucien." Taylor shot up and went to her purse, pulling out her phone.

"Seven from Ben," She read hastily, "two from Steve, and four from Lucien." They shared a worried look.

"It's an anomaly." Darren said, standing up as well. Taylor scrolled through her phone to get Steve's location text.

"I've got the location." She said loudly, "It's in the abandoned textile factory. That's only a few minutes away." She grabbed her jacket and keys and headed out of the door. Darren rushed after her.

"I'll call Ben now." He said, getting into the passenger seat of her car. Ben picked up after only one ring.

"Steve, where the hell have you been?" The harried team leader shouted into the phone. "Is Taylor with you? Why haven't you been picking up?"

"I'm sorry, Ben." Darren apologized as Taylor pulled out onto the street. "Our phones were turned down and we couldn't hear them, we're on our way. What's the status?"

"Nothing yet." Ben replied, "But get here as quickly as you can, just in case."

"Got it," Darren said, still trying to sound apologetic, "we're on our way." Darren hung up the phone and filled Taylor in.

Taylor pulled into the textile factory parking lot only a few minutes after Darren got off of the phone with Ben and the pair rushed inside. The anomaly was located in the center of the cleared factory floor and the rest of the team were surrounding it, looking anxious. Darren noticed Steve was wearing his headset, which meant he was working.

Darren clapped Steve on the shoulder as he walked past him to take his place in their standard semi-circle surrounding the anomaly. Steve gave him a distracted nod as he argued with the person on the other end of the phone.

"I understand the computer is operating slowly, Mrs. Harris." Steve said, his voice tinged with exasperation, "But you need to understand that I need you to start it up so I can help you figure out what's wrong with it." Steve looked at Darren and made a face of boredom, miming with his hands that Mrs. Harris was droning on and on. Darren smiled at him and shook his head.

Suddenly, the anomaly pushed outwards. Darren and the rest of the team took a step backwards, preparing either for it to close or for some creature to rush out. What none of them were expecting, however, was for a man to run out of the anomaly. This man had clearly been living rough for a long time. His t shirt may have once been white, but it was now a permanently stained brownish color. The red plaid shirt he had on was unbuttoned and was sporting several holes and tears. The man's face was weathered and bronzed by constant exposure to the sun, and he had a large gash running across his cheek, no doubt from some encounter or another. The man looked at the new ARC team with a small amount of surprise, but recovered quickly.

"Hi there." He said, looking around. "Give us just a sec." The man turned back around and faced the anomaly, hefting the large walking stick he had with him like a baseball bat.

Darren heard a loud screech from the other side of the anomaly and it expanded again, bringing with it a large, angry looking ostrich-like bird. It screeched again and charged at the man, who swung his stick upwards, connecting it with the birds head, causing it to snap back with a sickening crack. The bird fell, dead before it hit the ground. Two more birds came through the anomaly and looked at everyone assembled.

"Stand your ground." The man instructed calmly, staring warily at the remaining birds, "If they can see I've killed one, they'll back off. They're mean, but terror birds aren't stupid." After a few tense seconds, the remaining terror birds backed away slowly into the anomaly, still glaring at the man with the stick. As they left through the anomaly, the stranger turned to face the team. They stood in silence as they watched the man silently while he watched them. Suddenly, Steve broke the silence.

"No, no, I'm still here, Mrs. Harris." He said loudly, looking apologetically at the others. The strange man looked at him in confusion. "I'm sorry," Steve repeated, "things are just busy, I was horribly, horribly distracted. What was your problem again?" Darren and the others waited while Steve looked progressively angrier

"Well there's no... I said I'm... Just listen here..." Steve sputtered, obviously being yelled at by the woman on the other line. The stranger gave Darren a confused look.

"He works as tech support." Darren explained in a whisper, "You caught us at a bad time."

"Oh," The man replied in a whisper, "sorry about that." Suddenly Steve exploded into the headpiece.

"Well, if you're going to be so rude when I'm in the middle of a situation, then you can go bake your cookies in hell you old crone!" He tore the headset off and threw it in a random direction. Ben looked between the man and Steve. Finally, he stepped forward.

"Ben Trent," He said, extending his hand. "New ARC team leader." The man frowned before reaching out and shaking Ben's hand.

"Danny Quinn," He replied, "old ARC team leader."

XXXXX

Ben didn't recognize the name, but he could tell Steve and Darren did. Steve's eyes got wider and Darren gave a small gasp of surprise. As Danny turned to face him, Steve's short range anomaly detector began beeping loudly.

"I thought you turned that off," Ben said, looking at Steve.

"I did," He replied, frowning at the device. "I acknowledged that I reached the anomaly when I got here. It keeps flashing from one spot to another." Steve kept frowning as he slapped the device against the palm of his hand. Danny moved over to him.

"Here," He said, holding out his hand, "let me see it." Steve looked over to Ben for confirmation. Ben nodded and Steve handed over the device. Danny stared at it for a moment.

"What the hell is this thing?" He asked with a confused look, "I've never seen a detector like this before. I thought you said you were ARC."

"We are ARC," Steve replied, taking the detector back, "sort of." Danny's eyes narrowed.

"What do you mean, sort of?" He asked. Ben noticed he tightened his grip in the stick he was carrying. He heard Lucien moving out from behind him, still carrying his hunting rifle, to get a better angle on Danny if things got ugly. Danny apparently noticed too and moved away from Steve, putting his hands up slightly.

"I don't want any trouble." He said calmly, looking between everyone. "You just don't look like the ARC I remember." Ben started to explain, but Darren gasped loudly. He had been looking at the detector and was holding it up to show Ben.

"Another anomaly just opened up in the building." He said quickly. "The two anomalies are interfering with each other, that's what's causing the detector to act up." Ben nodded, processing the new information.

"Darren and Taylor, come with me." He said, "We'll go secure the new anomaly. Lucien, Steve, you two wait here. Lucien, keep a look out for any more terror birds."

"I'm coming with you too." Danny said, jogging up to Ben. Ben sighed, he didn't have time to argue, there could be a creature incursion any minute.

"Fine." Ben replied, turning to follow Darren, who was running ahead with the detector. "But stay close and do what I tell you."

"You've never read his file," Steve called as Ben and Danny raced off after Darren and Taylor. "I don't think he followed his own orders sometimes."

XXXXX

Danny followed the new team leader and tried to process what was going on. He was obviously back in modern times, and these kids seemed to know what the ARC was. But none of them acted like ARC members, especially not the high-efficiency, paramilitary ARC Danny had met when he'd been back for a few hours, almost five years ago. Danny almost stopped as the shock hit him, he'd been gone for for over six years in total. There was no way he should be alive at all.

The guy with the long black hair and camera around his neck turned suddenly into a side room, and the others followed. Sure enough, the camera guy had been right, there was a large glowing anomaly right in front of them. Unfortunately, there was also a Roman centurion standing in front of the anomaly with his sword out, looking dangerous. When he saw the group of people standing by the doorway, he waved his sword threateningly at them.

"Quis novus abyssus est is? Quare operor filiolus persevero imprecor mihi?" The Roman yelled angrily, stepping forward. Danny sighed, he thought back to how much fun it had been to convince the knight he wasn't in hell. Danny doubted the Roman would be any easier. He looked at the kids claiming to be part of the ARC team.

"He said, 'What hell is this? Why do the gods continue to curse me?'" Danny translated as he moved to the front of the group, holding Molly in front of him in a defensive stance.

"You speak Latin?" Ben asked, sounding confused. Danny gave another internal sigh, why was everyone surprised that a copper had a classical education?

"Vos es non in abyssus, nos vilis vos haud vulnero." Danny told the centurion. Danny looked over his shoulder, "I told him he's not in hell and we don't mean him any harm."

"Look out!" The blonde woman screamed suddenly. Danny was able to turn back just in time to block the centurion's sword with Molly. Danny grunted with the effort as he pushed the centurion back. Danny sighed and shook his head, if he wanted to play rough, Danny was going to play rough.

Danny and the centurion circled each other, both eyeing one another warily. With a wild shout, Danny launched his attack, jabbing at the centurion, pushing him back and keeping him on the defensive. Suddenly, the centurion dodged one of Danny's jabs and swung for his head. Luckily, Danny had been waiting for that move and he ducked, swinging Molly at the centurion's knees.

Danny's attack, coupled with his own failed slash, threw the centurion off balance, causing him to topple to the floor. Danny stood up quickly and gave the centurion a quick rap over the head, knocking the misplaced Roman unconscious. Danny turned to see the stunned faces of the others. They were all staring at him, open mouthed in shock and awe. Danny shook his head, looking at the unconscious centurion.

"They just aren't making these guys like they used to." He said, trying to sound casual.

Ben opened his mouth to respond, but whatever he'd been about to say was drowned out by the screeching of a pair of Pterosaurs as they flew through the anomaly and circled the high ceilinged room before swooping down to the group.

One of the Pterosaurs landed in front of Danny, between him and the centurion, and gave another loud screech, marking its prey. Meanwhile, the second landed in front of the other group. It began cawing and waddling towards them, making quick jabs with its sharp beak.

Danny moved away from the first Pterosaur and tried to help the others with the second. It kept backing them up and they didn't seem to have an effective weapon against it. The Pterosaur made another jab at the blonde woman and the taller guy with the camera put his arm in front of her, pushing her behind him. As it made another jab, the guy lifted his camera and set off the flash.

The Pterosaur jerked its head back in fear and pain. That was all the opening Danny needed. He rushed forward and swung Molly as chest level into the unlucky Pterosaur. It was knocked backwards, stumbling away from Danny and the others. Danny waved Molly threateningly at it and the Pterosaur took off back through the anomaly.

As the camera guy pulled the blonde woman into a tight hug, Danny heard moaning from behind him. He turned to see the Roman centurion trying to raise himself. Unfortunately, the Pterosaur saw him as well. Thinking quickly, Danny threw Molly at it, hoping to scare it away. He couldn't believe that it worked, but as soon as the stick hit the Pterosaur's back, it took off, flying back through the anomaly as the glowing ball of light closed behind it. Danny sighed and looked at the struggling centurion, it looked like he was stuck here as well.

As Danny moved to the centurion, he heard gun shots echoing from the main floor where the first anomaly had been located. Without even sparing Danny or the centurion a second glance, all three of the ARC members rushed off to see what happened. Danny shook his head as he crouched down next to the centurion, tossing the man's sword out of his reach. Despite his initial thoughts, these kids were definitely ARC. Even if they were some type of unofficial ARC, they'd still proven themselves to him in the past ten minutes.

Danny put his hand on the centurion's shoulder as he tried to sit up. The Roman stopped and looked at Danny with confusion.

"Quis everto servo vita damno primoris?" The centurion asked, looking up at Danny. He translated in his head: What demon saves the life of the damned first? Danny gave the man a small smile.

"Unus ut uest non a everto. Operor vos narro ullus English?" Danny responded, lifting his hand.

"Then you are not a demon?" The man asked, surprising Danny with his fluent English. Danny nodded.

"No, and this isn't hell." Danny added, standing up and extending his hand to the Roman. The man took it and allowed Danny to help him to his feet.

"Then where am I?" The centurion asked. "And what were those creatures if not demons?" Danny sighed to himself, this was going to be complicated.

"It's... hard to explain." Danny told him. "But I'm Danny, What's your name?" The centurion looked at Danny for a moment and then he bowed.

"I am Gartus Iorta, commander of Caesar's fifth legion, at your service." Danny nodded, this was going to be very complicated.

XXXXX

Taylor looked at the other members of the team who were all sitting in a circle on boxes that they'd found around the factory, and she was instantly reminded of the first time they all met. Of course, last time, there wasn't a member of the original ARC and a Roman centurion present; nor had there been two dead terror birds in another room of the factory. She squeezed Darren's hand as she thought about the Pterosaur again. She'd been terrified when it had begun to jab at them, but Darren had been there to protect her, and she'd made sure he knew how grateful she was for that. She looked back as Danny as he sat down and looked over everyone.

"So, first things first." Danny said, rubbing his hands together. "What year is it?"

"2013." Ben told him plainly. Danny nodded, looking thoughtful. Then he suddenly perked up.

"That means you've had another World Cup." He said excitedly. "Who won?" Taylor was taken aback as his sudden change of topic, but Steve, as usual, was unfazed by the odd transition.

"Spain." He replied casually. Danny looked interested.

"Good match?" He asked. Steve shrugged.

"It wasn't too bad." He said conversationally, "They might have lost but the other teams goalie choked in the last quarter." Danny nodded again.

"Right, so we've gotten the important stuff out of the way. Now, what happened to the ARC, because you definitely aren't the ARC I left or the ARC I met four years ago." Ben leaned forward.

"The ARC you knew has been shut down." He told Danny, "It's been closed up for years."

"Why would they do that if there are still anomalies?" Danny asked, beginning to look angry.

"There was something called convergence." Steve cut in, "Basically hundreds of anomalies that opened up on the same day. Then after convergence, the anomalies stopped appearing." Danny frowned, looking at the spot on the factory floor where he'd come through an anomaly only an hour ago.

"So why hasn't the ARC opened back up if anomalies are appearing again." He asked, still looking confused.

"Steve and Darren got into the ARC database," Ben explained, "they found out that all of the old ARC members are under constant government surveillance." Now Danny looked more confused than ever.

"Why would the British government monitor the ARC?" He asked, looking angry. "Especially after everything we did for them."

"To make sure they didn't tell anyone about the anomalies." Darren said quietly. "During convergence, there was complete chaos. Dinosaurs in the streets, people looting, the churches overflowing with last minute converts; real end of the world stuff."

"And then when it ended," Steve picked up. "the government convinced everyone that there were drugs in the water, and that there had been a terrorist attack."

"So now they monitor the old ARC in case any of them tell people what really happened." Taylor finished, looking at Danny. Suddenly the Roman, Gartus, spoke up for the first time. He'd been so quiet the entire time, Taylor had forgotten he was even there.

"What is the ARC? And what are these 'anomalies'? And how can the world have a cup, and what must you do to win it?" He asked with a severely confused look on his face. Taylor saw Ben give a small sigh.

"The glowing ball of light, that was an anomaly." Ben explained. "They're like doors to another time, like from here to Rome." Gartus frowned.

"The light door you found me at did not lead from Rome." He told them, "It led from a forest where demons dwelled. I followed one of the anomalies, as you call them, from Rome into the forest of the damned, where I was stranded for three months." Taylor and the others looked at the centurion in shock. He'd survived in the past for three months on his own. Danny merely shrugged and patted Gartus on the back.

"Maybe later we can go over the best ways to cook a dinosaur, aye?" Danny told him with a smile. Gartus frowned again.

"What is a dinosaur?" He asked, looking at Danny in confusion.

A few hours later, after the team had caught Danny up on the past five years of current events, and Gartus on the most important events of the last two thousand years, they were heading back to their cars. Lucien had volunteered his spare room to Danny, who was legally dead, and Steve and Darren had demanded that Gartus come and live with them. Taylor knew Steve just wanted someone to explain everything to. Steve didn't have many vices, but Taylor had discovered in the past month that he really did like to demonstrate his knowledge to anyone who was willing to listen which was usually Darren. And now that she had begun to occupy more of Darren's time, she knew Steve needed a new audience.

Taylor was walking back to her car with Darren, who had his arm wrapped around her shoulders. Steve and Gartus were walking behind them while Steve attempted to explain how the cars worked. Suddenly, Danny came running up to them, calling Darren's name. Darren turned around to face him.

"Can I talk to you for a moment?" Danny asked as a greeting. Darren shrugged.

"Yeah, what's up?" He asked. Steve and Gartus stopped walking as well and stood close by, listening in the the conversation.

"Firstly, good job with the Pterosaur." Danny congratulated. "That was a quick bit of thinking to use the flash on your camera." Darren looked the ground, clearly a little embarrassed to receive such good praise from one of the original ARC.

"Secondly," Danny continued, "Ben says you're the guy to talk to about the other ARC members." Darren nodded.

"Yeah, I always liked reading the files, especially yours." He admitted, "I guess you want to know about Connor Temple and Abby Maitland?"

"Yeah," Danny replied, looking hopeful for some good news. "and Captain Becker and Lester."

"Well, Abby Maitland is now Abby Temple." Darren told him. Danny grinned widely. "They got married four years ago and have a four year old boy named Nicholas Stephen Temple, and a two year old girl named Sarah Paige Temple." Danny looked upset about something, but quickly hid it beneath a smile.

"I wonder what they'll name the third one." He asked with a grin. Steve laughed and Darren smiled, but Taylor missed the joke.

"I don't get it." She said, looking at Darren.

"Nick Cutter, Stephen Hart, and Sarah Page are all core ARC members that died in the line of duty." Darren explained. "Danny was just saying that they've run out of names." Taylor frowned at what she didn't think was a very funny joke. Danny seemed to notice.

"Bad joke, I know." He apologized, "I haven't spoken with anyone for a while, so I'm still trying to remember what I should and shouldn't say." He gave her a small smile before turning back to Darren. "And what about Captain Becker, what happened to him?"

"He's been promoted to Major Becker." Darren told Danny, "And he married Jess Parker, the former ARC field coordinator. Their wedding was only about six months ago." Danny nodded, digesting the news.

"The old ARC leader, Matt Anderson, where's he now? And Lester, what happened to Lester?"

"Lester retired from the civil service after the ARC shut down." Darren said, "And no one has seen Matt Anderson or Lady Emily Merchant since the last anomaly alert."

"By all accounts, they dropped off the face of the Earth." Steve added. "No one has seen them for years." Danny nodded, looking thoughtful.

"OK," He said after a moment, "Thanks, Darren." Danny turned and walked back to Lucien, who was waiting by his car. Darren held Taylor's arm as Steve and Gartus walked to Steve's car.

"I think things are really going to start changing around here." He confided in a whisper. Taylor looked at the concern in his eyes.

"What do you mean?" She asked in confusion.

"This isn't just a little group anymore." He said, sounding worried. "Now we've got a dead man and a Roman centurion on our team, and the anomalies are getting worse. There were three today alone." Taylor nodded, she saw his point but didn't share his concern.

"Then we'll just have to start doing even better than we have." She told him with a small smile. "Don't worry, we can handle the anomalies." Darren nodded.

"I know," He said, "but the more anomalies we respond to, the more chance we run of getting caught." Taylor noticed the look of worry in his eyes. "I just don't think this will work as a government operation again, not after convergence day. The government isn't concerned with keeping people safe, they just want to keep them from knowing about anomalies." Taylor sighed as she wrapped her arms around Darren, he had some good points, but there was no point in worrying about it now. All that mattered was that they'd survived again.

**AN:** To start, I know that Romans wouldn't have spoken English because English hadn't been created yet. Just go with it, I need Gartus for some later plotlines and I wanted a Roman. Sorry for the delay, this chapter wasn't easy to write; there's always one. So extra reviews would be great because I didn't think this one was one of my best. The next one will be better, I promise.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Danny groaned as he rubbed his chest, he _was_ going to be cool and mysterious. When he'd learned about the surveillance on the original ARC members, Danny just became more determined to see them, especially the Temples. So he'd broken into their house and waited on the couch for them to get home.

Unfortunately, he hadn't factored in their new 'protective parents' reflexes. So when they'd opened the door to see someone sitting on their couch, neither of them hesitated.

"Again, I'm really sorry for shooting you, Danny." Abby told him, setting down the cup of tea. Connor grinned, which he'd been doing since he was sure Danny was alright.

"Yeah, it's just you've got to be careful with kids, you know." Connor added. The kids in question were sitting on the couch, watching some odd, completely impossible to understand cartoon full of flashing lights and weird noises. They were enthralled.

Of course, they'd been terrified when their parents had shot someone with a gun their mother pulled out of her purse, but when Danny had shown them that he wasn't hurt and convinced the kids it wasn't a real gun, they'd warmed right up to him. And then Abby gave Connor twenty pounds, which gave Danny the cause to act overly offended.

"You two bet twenty pounds on whether I was still alive or not?" He'd asked, grinning the whole time. Connor had just laughed.

"I never lost faith." He assured Danny, "And now I gained some money out of it too."

So now the three of them were sitting around the table, preparing to catch up. Connor was looking over the blueprint Steve had for the anomaly locking device. It had been Steve's condition for giving him the Temple's new address.

"So how'd you get back?" Abby asked first, "The anomalies have all closed." Danny had already decided how to answer that question.

"Got lucky, I suppose." He said, "I just saw one and took it." Danny tried not to feel guilty about lying to his friends, after all it was partially true. He knew that if Connor and Abby knew the anomalies were back, they'd both want to jump in, and he wouldn't let them do it, not with two children at home.

"What about Patrick." Connor asked, making a note on the blueprint. "Did you ever find him?"

"No," Danny replied truthfully, "gave up looking to be honest. I realized he didn't want to be found after the first year, so eventually I stopped searching for him and started looking for a way back. After four years, I found it." Abby frowned suddenly.

"But why did you break in?" She asked, looking at Danny with concern. "Why didn't you just knock on the door?"

"I heard from a friend of mine that works in MI5 that old ARC members were under surveillance." Danny lied easily. Surprisingly, Abby slapped the table in joy while Connor groaned.

"I told you he was watching us." She said loudly, "Random coincidence my butt. Pay up." Connor groaned again and glared at Danny as he pulled his recent winnings out of his pocket and handed them back to his wife. She grinned widely as she put her money back into her purse.

"Danny," Connor asked suddenly, looking up from the blueprint, "Why am I working on an anomaly locker if there are no more anomalies?" Abby stared at the blueprint and back at Danny.

"Anomalies have begun showing up again, haven't they?" She asked in mild fear. Danny saw her give an involuntary glance at her two children, who were sitting on the couch, still watching their show. Danny nodded slowly, knowing he couldn't keep it a secret any longer.

"And you're planning on stopping them yourself." Connor accused, his voice rising. "Well, I hope you can manage, because we have a family now, Danny. You can't ask us to risk that again." Danny stopped, he'd never seen Connor get angry before, even when Abby yelled at him on the other side of a anomaly in the future. But now, he seemed livid at the thought of Danny trying to bring them back into their old lives. Danny looked at Abby, she looked just as resolute. Danny looked back at Connor. who seemed ready to explode again at any moment.

"I don't want you coming back in, Connor." Danny told him calmingly, "That's why I didn't tell you about the anomalies in the first place."

"Oh," Connor said, deflating a little, "so you plan on trying to control anomalies all by yourself, then?" Danny shook his head.

"There's actually a team already in place." He told them, "They call themselves the New ARC, but they're doing pretty good. It's all unofficial, but they've been at it for a month now, and they haven't died yet." Abby nodded., looking thoughtful.

"Matt always said the anomalies would be back." She said, "I've always thought that's why he left."

"What happened to him?" Danny asked, "One of the guys on the new team said that he just fell off the grid and hasn't been heard from in years."

"He and Emily, his Victorian era girlfriend, traveled through an anomaly that led into the future." Connor explained, "He wouldn't give a lot of reason why, he just said he had to."

"After he and Emily went through, the anomalies closed, seemingly for good." Abby added. "We haven't heard anything about them since." Danny nodded, trying to digest the news. After a moment of thoughtful silence, Danny tried to steer the conversation towards happier topics.

"So," he began, "sorry I missed the wedding." He grinned and sat back as Connor launched into a full blown description of their wedding, talking animatedly with his hands. Listening to Connor, Danny felt happier than he had in a long time.

XXXXX

Ben walked into his dorm room on campus and tossed his bag beside his desk. He sat down with a groan and put his head in his hands. The weeks of late nights and last minute alerts had finally caught up with him; he'd just received four flunking test grades from separate classes. He'd known he'd fail all of those tests anyways, he never found time to study anymore. Any free time that he had where he wasn't chasing dinosaurs, he had to use to sleep so he'd be able to keep chasing dinosaurs.

Ben gave another groan as his phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket, expecting to see Steve calling him to tell him about another anomaly. Instead he saw his mum's name on the caller id. Ben mentally prepared himself to talk with her. They loved each other, but occasionally, she could be a bit overbearing. Ben flipped his phone open and hit accept.

"Hi, mum." He said immediately, also wondering why she'd be calling at all.

"Hi, Benny." She responded. Ben winced internally, he hated his childhood nickname of Benny, but his mother wouldn't hear a word against it.

"I was just wondering what's been going on with you." His mum continued. Ben nodded to himself, she was sticking to her standard questions.

"Nothing much," He replied, "Just, you know, school and studying." Ben gave the pile of failed tests a guilty glance.

"Well I was just talking to Ryan Matthis' mother the other day. And she said Ryan told her you've seemed a bit distant. he says he rarely ever see you. I just wanted to call and make sure everything was alright." At that moment, Ben felt the weight of everything he had to do bearing down on his shoulders. He wanted to tell his mother the truth; that he wasn't ok, that he worried about making a decision that would get himself or one of his friends killed every day, that he couldn't sleep at night worrying over everything that was going on in his life. While he was struggling over whether to tell her everything, his phone beeped. Ben looked at it and saw Steve was calling. Ben knew what he had to do.

"Mum, I've got another call. I'll have to call you back another time."

"Can't they call you back?" His mum asked, "I am you mother, you know. I think I take priority." Ben shook his head, classic mum.

"Not over this mum," He replied quickly, "I've got to go, I love you." Ben quickly disconnected the call and answered Steve, snapping into leadership mode.

"What's going on, Steve?" He asked as soon as the call connected. Steve sighed.

"We've got another weird one, boss." Steve replied, sounding exasperated.

"Underwater?" He asked.

"It doesn't seem like it. It keeps flashing, it'll be here for a minute, and then gone. I don't know what's going on with it." Steve said, sounding confused.

"Right, check the old ARC records for anything similar and meet me there, I'll call the others." Ben told him. On the other end of the line, Steve sucked in air through his teeth.

"Might be a slight problem with that." He said, "Darren and Taylor are out of town, Darren had some photos he had to take in the country, and Taylor went with him. They're hours away." Ben cursed under his breath, he didn't want to respond to an odd alert without two of his team while they had an untrained centurion and a loose cannon old ARC leader.

Ben still wasn't sure where he stood with Danny. He didn't know if Danny would take orders from him, or if he'd try to take charge. To be truthful, Ben almost wanted Danny to be in charge, to have the responsibility of keeping the team alive off of his shoulders. Ben decided to focus on the immediate problem and cross the bridge with Danny when he got to it.

"Fine, then send everyone else the coordinates and meet me at the anomaly site." Ben said, standing up to leave. Steve sucked in his teeth again.

"Another problem," Steve began. Ben groaned internally. "I can't be there either, I've got to go to the central office."

"Can't you reschedule it?" Ben asked angrily, "I need my whole team on this one Steve."

"Look, sorry boss," Steve replied, "but I responded to the last anomaly while I was working and ended up telling an old lady to go bake cookies in hell. They kind of frown on that up at central. So I've got to go and get myself a new asshole torn, and you're on your own, buddy."

"What about Danny?" Ben asked, feeling desperate, "Do you know where he and Lucien are?"

"Lucien's at his monthly National Guard training." Steve replied, "And Danny went to go visit the Temples, I don't know about Gartus."

"What the hell is Danny doing at the Temples?" Ben asked angrily, "He knew they were being watched. How did he even get the address?"

"I gave it to him." Steve said calmly. That made Ben even angrier, Steve should've known better than to let Danny run wild.

"So you told him where people, who we know are being watched, live?" Ben questioned. Surprisingly, Steve scoffed.

"Of course not," He replied, "that would be stupid. I gave him the blueprints we have for the anomaly locking device and told him to get Connor Temple to fix it up for me. Then I told him where people, who we know are being watched, live." Ben sighed, it couldn't be helped now and at least they might get a working anomaly locker out of it.

"I don't know about Gartus, though." Steve continued. "I mean, we gave him a spare phone, but I don't know how much he remembers about how to use it."

"Don't worry about Gartus." Ben replied, "I know where he is. Send the coordinates to me and Danny, we'll check it out." Ben grabbed his car keys and began heading out of the door.

"Good luck." Steve said finally as he hung up. Ben went to his car and got in, checking the location Steve had sent him. The anomaly was at least an hour away. Ben nodded to himself as he pulled out of the parking lot, he wasn't looking forward to this.

XXXXX

After he got off the phone with Ben, Steve called Danny to let him know about the strange anomaly alert they'd gotten, maybe it was something he'd encountered before. Danny picked up after two rings.

"Quinn here," The ex-cop said as he answered, "what's up?"

"We've got an odd anomaly alert, it keeps flickering." Steve told him, "But half the team is occupied. it looks like it'll just be you, Ben, and Gartus; but I have no idea where he is."

"Oh, Gartus?" Danny replied, "Gartus has been tailing me all day, I think Ben put him up to it." Steve was shocked into silence for a moment.

"Well, that's... nice of him." Steve said after a moment. "I didn't think he'd do something like that, I'm a little surprised." Danny didn't seem worried.

"Nah," He replied, "it's good leadership skills. I'm a wild card, see, so sending someone to make sure I don't get into trouble is a good idea. Of course, my first pick wouldn't have been the Roman centurion with two days worth of experience in the 21st century, but the choices were limited." Steve nodded to himself, surprised at how unoffended Danny seemed to be about being tailed.

"Right, well, I'm sending you the coordinates and you can lead Gartus there." Steve told him, "The Temple house is much closer to the site, it'll take Ben at least an hour to get to you, so be careful."

"No problem," Danny replied, "I just left Connor and Abby's a few minutes ago, I've got your plans, by the way." Steve nodded to himself, if they had the updated plans, he could easily build the locking device in a week.

"I've been meaning to ask you." Danny continued, "When I visited the ARC the second time, they had a collection of creatures that weren't able to return to their own times. So what happened to them when the ARC shut down?"

"Because of convergence and the anomaly spike that followed," Steve explained, "there were anomalies opening up to every time period out there. A special crew was put together just to transport creatures from the ARC to the anomalies. They managed to send every creature back to it's own time."

"That's good," Danny said, "I'm sure Abby was thrilled. One more question, what happened to all of the ARC's equipment? The ADD, EMD's, and locking devices?"

"Locked up." Steve answered, "Before we even met the others, Darren and I scoped out the government warehouse where they keep it all, but it was way too heavily guarded. Like, shoot on sight guards surrounding the entire facility. We can't get to any of that, only the files."

"Ok then," Danny said after a moment, "I'll go check out that anomaly."

"I'll send the location to your phone." Steve told him, "Good luck."

"Thanks," Danny replied, "I'll see you later." And he hung up. Steve texted Danny the address and continued driving to the central office, waiting to get yelled at by at least four different people, he wasn't looking forward to this.

XXXXX

Danny stopped in the street and stared at his phone in shock. The anomaly site was the same house where it all began for him, where Patrick had disappeared and where he'd spent so long looking for answers. He tried to force himself to move, but his legs wouldn't cooperate. He sank to his knees and leaned against a nearby building for support. A man kneeled in front of him.

"Are you alright?" The man asked. Danny looked up and saw Gartus talking to him. Before Danny could respond, Gartus lowered his voice.

"Someone is following you." He said in a low tone. "Go somewhere quiet so we can take care of him." In a louder voice, Gartus said, "If you're alright, I'll just be on my way." Gartus walked off, leaving Danny still sitting on the ground. He knew he had to move, had to get to the anomaly site. The house was probably still abandoned, they could take care of the tail there.

As he walked down the street, Danny silently berated himself, he'd been careless at the Temple's, and now their watchers knew that they were meeting with someone who didn't want to be seen and knew about the surveillance. Danny focused on catching his tail and finding out how much he knew and how much he'd passed on to his superiors.

Danny could see the bridge that led to the abandoned house where he'd lost his brother almost twenty years before. His thoughts flashed back to Patrick, the fun they'd had as children, and the total despair and loss that had hit him when he'd disappeared. Then the shock of seeing Patrick alive after fifteen years and finding out that he was a murderer and a terrorist. A woman's voice cut into Danny's reveries.

"You can't go in there." She said. Danny hadn't even noticed the girl walk up to him. She looked young, with short brown hair and a schoolbag slung over her shoulder. Danny frowned at her.

"Why not?" He asked, with a slight tone of accusation.

"Because that house has very rabid and angry bats." The girl told him. Danny stared at her, she was obviously hiding something.

"Bats?" He said, giving her an amused grin, "You really expected me to believe bats?" The girl sighed.

"Fine," She said, exasperatedly, "If you really want to know, there's a camouflaging gremlin that lives in that house that will kill you if you step inside." Danny was taken aback at her blatant honesty, although he was sure she meant it to confuse people. Danny played along.

"That's ok then," He told her, "I was part of a secret government agency that dealt with things like this. That gremlin came through a tear in time and space called an anomaly." Danny noted her look of surprise, but he continued. "Now when was the last time you saw this gremlin?" He asked. The girl looked shocked at the turn the conversation had taken.

"I haven't seen it in years," She told him. That was good, she was probably referring to the one he'd encountered with Abby and Jenny.

"I used to feed it at night." The girl continued, "I'd make sure it had enough food so it wouldn't hurt anyone. Then a woman named Abby Maitland told me that she would make sure it didn't hurt anyone." Danny nodded.

"I met that one too." He told her, "I shot it in the head so it wouldn't hurt anyone. I'm Danny Quinn, by the way." The girl looked even more shocked than before.

"E-Emily Davis," She responded, sounding a little frightened.

"Nice to meet you, Emily." Danny said, patting her on the shoulder. "Now run along, I've got to check out the house, I think another anomaly has opened up in it and there might be more gremlins."

"I'm coming with you." Emily volunteered suddenly. Danny was surprised by her decision.

"No, you can't." He insisted, "It'll be dangerous and I don't want you to get hurt." Not to mention the government tail that would be coming to the house any minute.

"You might get hurt if you're in there alone." She said, sounding concerned. Danny shrugged.

"I'll be fine," He told her, "my Roman centurion friend will be coming soon." Emily looked skeptical at his answer, but she seemed ready to believe anything at that point.

"Well I'm sticking with you until he gets here." She stated. Danny sighed.

"Fine," He said finally, "but you listen to everything I say and follow my every order." Emily nodded and walked behind Danny as he crossed the bridge and got to the front door.

"I think there's an open window in the back." Emily told him. Danny kicked the door in instead.

"The only part of being a copper I actually enjoyed." He told her. Emily shook her head and followed Danny inside.

The house was clearly deserted, and had been for far too long. Danny could smell the must and of an empty house and he saw mold creeping along one of the walls. Emily looked around, obviously worried.

"Do you think there are any gremlins in the house yet?" She asked, still looking around.

"No way to know until they make a move." Danny responded, "We'll go check out the upstairs anomaly in a minute.

"Why do we have to wait?" Emily asked, looking curious.

"Because my centurion friend is bringing a guest." Danny said with a grin.

XXXXX

Gartus Iorta was a worrier, it was just part of his personality. So when he'd gotten behind the man who was following Danny, he was sure the man was on to him. Gartus was worried that he'd overplayed his hand by tipping Danny off about his pursuer, but he still couldn't figure out how to use the phone Steve had given him.

When he got closer to the house Danny had gone inside with a young woman, Gartus moved to hide down an abandoned side street. Soon, the follower had passed by him, seemingly oblivious. As the man got closer to the house, Gartus silently began to follow him, moving from one area of cover to the next, trying to remain undetected. But the man seemed focused on getting to Danny and the woman he was with.

Gartus still didn't know what to make of Danny, or any of the others for that matter. Steve and Darren seemed like good men, they'd given him somewhere to live while he was stranded in the future, and they seemed to like him. He'd barely gotten to know any of the others since he'd arrived in the future, the only person he'd even seen more than once was Taylor, and she seemed to come to Steve and Darren's home just to see Darren.

Thinking about Darren and Taylor reminded Gartus of his wife, Phillipa. She had probably been forced to remarry since he'd been gone to help provide for their six year old son, Titus. He missed them both and fervently hoped he'd find a way back to his family.

The man reached the front of the house and stood in front of the steps, seeming to compose himself. Gartus ran at full speed, not caring about silence anymore. He got behind the man and wrapped his arm around the man's chest, pinning his arms to his chest. As the man struggled to get free, Gartus placed the tip of his knife against the man's jugular. The man froze.

Danny opened the front door, ushering them inside.

"C'mon," He whispered, "the neighbors will be watching." Gartus looked around in surprise and fear, but there were no other houses within eyesight. He frowned at Danny, who sighed.

"It was a joke, Gartus." He explained wearily, "Now hurry up and get that guy inside." Gartus nodded and dragged the mysterious man into the house. He saw the brown haired girl look at him and Danny in shock.

"Are you kidnapping someone?" She asked, terrified. Surprisingly, Danny shook his head.

"Nope, this man is a government spy; he doesn't even exist." At Danny's words, Gartus squeezed the struggling man.

"He feels real to me." Gartus told Danny. Danny sighed again.

"It's a figure of speech." He explained. Gartus nodded, trying to understand all of the new rules of language he'd missed in the last two thousand years. Gartus tightened his grip on the government spy.

"Can we restrain him?" He asked Danny, tired of trying to keep the man from getting away. Danny pulled a sash from the curtain over the window. He tied the man's hands behind his back, allowing Gartus to put him down. The man slid backwards until he was pressed against the wall and glared at the three of them.

"I'm not saying anything." He spat. Danny just smiled at him.

"That's fine," He responded, "you just sit there and not talk, we've got bigger fish to fry at the moment." Danny turned to Gartus.

"I like that trench coat," Danny told him, "it sort of suits you." Gartus grinned.

"Thank you," He responded, "I chose it for the inner pocket." Gartus held open his jacket to reveal his sword and scabbard, which he'd placed into the inside pocket of the coat Darren had given him. The young woman looked shocked.

"You really are a Roman centurion, aren't you?" She asked in disbelief. Danny slapped himself on the head.

"I forgot to introduce you." He said apologetically, "Emily, this is Gartus, commander of Caesar's fifth legion. Gartus, this is Emily Davis, psychology student." Gartus frowned.

"What is psychology?" He asked, confused. As Emily was preparing to explain, they heard a gurgling noise from the government spy.

All three of them looked at the same time to see the man's mouth foaming and his eyes rolling back into his head.

"Help him!" Danny yelled as he rushed to the man, kneeling beside him. But it was already too late, the man was dead. Gartus looked in disbelief at the man who'd been alive and healthy moments ago; what cruel god had done this? Danny suddenly pried the man's mouth open and stared at his teeth. He sighed and pointed to a missing tooth that Gartus was sure he'd had before.

"Cyanide capsule." Danny explained to Gartus and Emily. "He killed himself rather than tell us anything. I think this is getting bigger than we'd thought." Danny began going through the man's pockets. Gartus, to whom looting the dead was nothing new, was unsurprised; but Emily seemed almost offended.

"What're you doing?" She asked angrily. Danny looked at her plainly.

"I need to see what information he might have passed on to his boss." He explained. Danny pulled out the man's phone and his wallet. He tossed the wallet to Gartus.

"See what you can find out about him from that." Danny instructed, "I'll go through the phone."

Gartus opened the wallet and looked at the picture in the front and center of the wallet. It had the man's picture and name, along with other descriptive information.

"It says his name is- was Roger Templeton." Gartus told Danny.

"Check behind it." Danny said without looking up from the phone, "He probably has more." Gartus pulled out the first card and saw several more behind it.

"Tom Mahoney," Gartus read, looking over the different names with the same information. "Simon Bellamy, Rudy Wade, Owen Harper; he's got more of these than I think is normal."

"That's spies for you." Danny told him, looking up from the phone. "They're a different person each week. What else does it have in there?" Gartus looked at the unfamiliar cards and assorted pieces of paper. Surprisingly, Emily took the wallet out of his hands and began flipping through it.

"Nothing unusual here, Danny." She said. Danny looked up in surprise.

"What are you doing?" He asked as she kept looking through the man's numerous cards.

"I'm helping." Emily replied.

"I don't want you to get involved in this." Danny said firmly, "You shouldn't be going through the dead man's stuff, you should just leave right now, forget you ever saw us and this Roger Templeton."

Emily shrugged, "I just saw a man die in a house where you say there's a tear in space and time," She replied nonchalantly, "I think I'm involved enough as it is." Danny looked at her angrily, but shook his head.

"Well, he hasn't made any calls in the last eight hours." Danny informed them, "And he's only received one text, which told him to follow white male, medium build, red-brown hair, green shirt and jeans." Danny gestured at what he was wearing, "Which means me. So, on the upside, they don't know who we are or what we do. On the downside..."

"There's a dead man in a house we're trespassing in." Emily finished. "And there might be camouflaging gremlins in the house." Gartus looked at Danny in alarm.

"You didn't say that creatures might already be in the house." He said accusingly. "We should have been checking on that."

"These things can change their color to match their surroundings." Danny explained, "We won't even know they're there until they strike. So I decided to take care of the government spy first."

"I think he is taken care of." Gartus stated simply, "We need to watch that anomaly." Danny nodded, looking at the stairs. He began patting the dead man's body, talking to the others as he worked.

"It should be upstairs, but Steve said it was flickering, so it might not even be opened right now." Danny said, "But let's go have a look." Emily looked at the dead man with concern.

"What about him?" She asked, pointing to the dead spy. Danny shrugged.

"Leave him," He said casually, "We can deal with it later." With a grin, Danny seemed to find what he was looking for and pulled a black object with a cylindrical top and a rectangular bottom, meeting in an L shape. Danny looked at Gartus and displayed the object in his hand.

"It's called a gun." He explained, "Think like a bow that fires tiny metal arrows that can tear through a man's body." Gartus looked at the device with a new interest and held out his hand for a closer inspection. Danny pulled back his hand.

"I don't think so," He said quickly, "I'll let you play with the gun after this alert is over and I can make sure you won't hurt anyone." Gartus nodded, it seemed fair given what Danny said this gun could do to someone. With the issue settled, Danny began walking up the stairs, leaving Gartus and Emily to follow him.

XXXXX

Emily Davis stood staring at the glowing ball of refracting shards of light for at least five minutes before she could say anything. Even when she could, all she'd managed was a weak, "wow". And even now, after half an hour spent watching the anomaly, she was still fascinated by the constantly changing ball of light.

She and Gartus were facing the anomaly while Danny stood with his back to them, watching the back room and stairs for any creature activity. Emily tried to stop and realize what had happened to her; that she was somehow part of a group of people who's main job seemed to be controlling the anomalies and keeping people safe from the creatures that came through. Emily thought back to her childhood, when she'd decided that was her job and had taken it upon herself to feed the tiny gremlin creature that lived in the big house she was now standing in.

The door creaked downstairs, snapping Emily out of her thoughts. Gartus hefted his sword into a defensive stance and Danny pulled the dead man's pistol out of his jeans, aiming it at the top of the stairs.

"Danny?" A male voice called from the foyer of the house. "Gartus? Is anyone here? Where- Oh God, what the hell happened?" Danny grinned at Emily and Gartus.

"I guess Ben met good ol' Roger." He said, sounding way too calm for a man discussing a dead spy. "Gartus, stay up here and watch the anomaly." Danny instructed, "Emily, you're with me." Emily followed Danny down the stairs into the foyer, where a young man was backed up against the far wall, staring at the former Roger Templeton. He looked at Danny with a mixture of relief and concern.

"What the hell is going on?" The man asked instantly. Then he saw Emily and his eyes got even wider. He pointed at her, "And who the hell is that?" He asked, frantically.

"This is Emily," Danny explained calmly. He gestured to the dead man, "And that was Roger Templeton, or Tom Mahoney, or Simon Bellamy. He had some other names too, but I can't remember them all." The young man still looked incredibly worried and seemed unable to panic about both things at once. He looked directly at Emily, refusing to even glance at Templeton.

"What is she doing here?" He asked Danny, anger rising in his voice. Danny shrugged.

"She volunteered, she dealt with anomalies before, she's good in a pinch, isn't that the only criteria you lot have?" The other man seemed to deflate and give up the argument. He extended his hand.

"Ben Trent, New ARC team leader." He said, his voice sounding dull. Emily shook the outstretched hand.

"I'm Emily," She told him, realizing as she said it that Danny had already introduced her. "I dealt with the creature that came out of this anomaly six years ago." Ben seemed to perk up and he looked more interested.

"Has there been an incursion?" He asked Danny. Danny shrugged.

"They look like little gremlins, and they can camouflage themselves." Danny explained, "But there hasn't been a problem since we've been here." Emily gave an involuntary, humorless laugh. Danny nodded at the dead man, conceding the point.

"There hasn't been a creature problem." He amended, "One poked it's head through about fifteen minutes ago, but Gartus waved his sword at it and it scarpered."

"So Gartus is here?" Ben asked, looking around. Danny nodded.

"He's upstairs, watching the anomaly." He told Ben. Ben nodded, looking thoughtful. After a few moments of silence, he gave a deep sigh and pointed at the dead man.

"Explain to me why there's a dead guy in the house, Danny." He said, obviously trying to keep calm and collected.

"He's a spy." Danny informed his boss. "He picked up my tail and followed me here. Gartus saw he was following me, so he tipped me off without being noticed." Emily frowned, a question forming in her mind.

"Why did Gartus need to tell you about the tail without being noticed?" She asked. "Wouldn't he have been with you the whole time?" Surprisingly, Danny looked amused about something while Ben looked extremely guilty. Danny patted the younger man on the shoulder.

"Ben told Gartus to follow me." Danny explained to Emily. She looked between the two of them with a shocked expression on her face, but Danny waved his hand jovially.

"It's what I would have done." He asserted. Ben looked up in shock. Danny shrugged.

"I've got a reputation for being a loose cannon." Danny added, "Ben made the right choice to send someone with me while I was out. It probably saved my life." Danny gave Ben a reassuring smile. "Just don't do it again." He added in a menacing tone.

Suddenly, Gartus walked down the steps, looking triumphant. "The anomaly is closed." He announced happily. "And I did not see any creatures." Ben gave a sigh of relief.

"I think this is the first alert we've ever had where there wasn't an incursion." He admitted. Emily looked at the three men, who were all grinning at a job well done, and asked the question that had been on her mind almost since she'd gotten inside.

"What are we going to do with this body?" She asked. Danny sucked in air through his teeth.

"We'll have to hide it somewhere." He said after a moment. Surprisingly, Ben laughed.

"I can do you one better." He stated as he pulled out his phone. Ben punched in a number and waited patiently. Emily saw Danny and Gartus exchange confused looks. Soon, someone on the other end of Ben's call picked up.

"Charlie," Ben said jovially, "I need a favor, a big one." Ben listened quietly for a moment. Emily looked at Danny, who seemed even more confused than ever.

"Definitely three rounds on Thursday," Ben said at last, "at a minimum. Here's what we need. I'm looking at a man who took a cyanide pill disguised as a tooth. He's sitting in the abandoned house on Pillsbury. Can you make this look like a regular suicide?. . .Uh huh, yeah, we can do that. . . yeah, it's closed. . . Alright will do, tell Ross I said hello and we'll see you at the Winchester on Thursday. Thanks, mate." Ben hung up the phone and looked at the shocked faces of his newest teammates.

"We saved a couple of cops once." Ben explained, "So now they give us a hand when they can. Delaying the authorities, keeping people away from anomaly sites, stuff like that." Emily was sure her expression of shock matched Danny's and Gartus'.

"We've got to go now, though." Ben added, "The police cars will be on their way in minutes and we can't be here when they get here." Emily nodded, shaking herself out of her shock. The four New ARC members hurried out of the house and into Ben's car, speeding away as the sound of sirens approached from the other direction.

XXXXX

As he pulled into the parking garage of his apartment complex, Darren looked at Taylor sitting next to him. It had been a long day of driving and photographing the countryside and he was glad she'd chosen to come with him.

"You wanna come in?" He asked. "I think Steve was planning on showing Gartus how to play video games; it'll be worth a few laughs." Taylor smiled.

"Yeah, I'll come up for a bit." She replied as they got out of the car. Darren took her hand and they walked to the elevator. Darren pressed the button for the third floor.

"Do you think Steve will be ok?" Taylor asked suddenly as they rode up. Darren looked at her.

"I'm sure we'll never know if he isn't." He responded after a moment. "He hides a lot of his emotions under his humor. Even I don't know if there's anything wrong half the time."

The elevator reached the third floor and they got out, Darren reaching for his key. As he unlocked the door, he was greeted with the sight of the rest of the New ARC team and a young brown haired girl who he'd never seen before.

"What's going on?" He asked, looking at everyone relaxing around his apartment.

"Seeing as half the team lives here," Danny said, leaning back on the couch, "we decided that your apartment made a great informal meeting place." Darren nodded, it made sense but still didn't explain who the new girl was.

"Who're you?" Taylor asked, walking over to her and holding out her hand.

"I'm Emily Davis." The girl replied. She looked at Danny, "Why does everyone seemed so confused when they see me?"

"Well, this is a secret organization." Steve supplied as he moved some papers off of a chair to give Darren somewhere to sit. "We really shouldn't be picking up new people every week." Darren sat down next to his friend.

"How was central?" He asked. Steve gave a large smile.

"Oh, you know, it was central." He replied evasively, "There was some reprimanding, some scolding, my pay got docked, you know, usual central stuff." Darren looked at his friend in concern, he was holding a beer can in one hand, and judging by the several cans on the floor surrounding him, he'd been at it for a while. Taylor sat next to Darren and looked at Emily with interest.

"So how'd you get involved with us?" She asked.

"There was an alert today." Danny told them, "And Emily was on hand and wanted to help."

"Plus she's had experience with the anomalies in the past." Ben added, "That seems to be our only real criteria." Darren nodded, feeling slightly guilty that he hadn't been there to help with the alert. Taylor seemed to feel the same way.

"Was there an incursion?" She asked. Gartus shook his head.

"We were lucky and unlucky at the same time." He told them cryptically. Darren saw Lucien frown.

"He was just about to tell us that when you two walked in." Lucien told the couple. Danny sat straighter in his seat.

"I got followed leaving Connor and Abby's house." He said, looking around at the team. Darren listened with rapt attention as Danny continued his story, from Gartus grabbing the spy, to the spy killing himself. When he'd finished, everyone was silent for a moment, gathering their thoughts. Lucien spoke first.

"So you think the government sent a spy to follow you, and then that spy killed himself." He asked Danny incredulously. Danny shook his head and Ben looked at him in surprise.

"I thought you were sure he was from the government." Ben said, looking at Gartus and Emily for confirmation.

"But now you're not so sure." Emily concluded. Danny nodded.

"Him killing himself doesn't add up." Danny said, looking at everyone.

"Sure it does." Steve stated, "Spies do that all the time, watch some movies."

"But why would he?" Danny argued, "If he was from the government, then he knew we were in the wrong and we'd be punished. So all he had to do was keep himself alive long enough to miss his next check-in, and they'd start looking for us." Lucien leaned forward, looking thoughtful.

"But instead, he killed himself." Lucien continued, thinking aloud. "So obviously, he thought you were going to try and find out what he knew." Danny nodded.

"Exactly, I think this is bigger than we thought." He said, his face beginning to show the first signs of apprehension. "I think there's someone outside the government who's trying to keep anomalies secret. And I think they're a lot more dangerous." Following Danny's pronouncement, everyone was quiet, thinking about the added consequences their actions would now bring. Finally, Steve broke the silence.

"All the more reason to get drunk now." He said, looking at the others. Darren grinned as he got up and went to the fridge to get a case of beer. But at the back of his mind, he couldn't help but worry about what Danny said, and about how long they could keep the anomalies a secret. And what would happen when it did get out.

XXXXX

Jess sat on the couch watching the late night news with her husband; Becker's arm wrapped around her shoulders and her head resting on his chest. The top story was about a man named Roger Templeton who'd committed suicide in an abandoned home earlier that day.

Even though the news was on, neither one of them was paying it any attention. Though he tried not to show it, Jess knew Becker was constantly watching the door, waiting for Danny to appear through it. Jess had gotten the call from Abby earlier in the day, Danny was back and anomalies were open again.

Jess looked at her husband and hoped she didn't see the guilt in her eyes. She'd known the anomalies had been open for the past month, but it was something she and Lester had decided to keep to themselves. She knew Becker would want to get back into the action, he'd want to protect people again. She didn't fault him for it, after what happened to him with Sarah Page, and with Connor, Abby, and Danny disappearing for a year, she understood his need to protect the other team members.

But he was married now, with a safe, office job that Lester had recommended him for. And even though Jess hated herself sometimes for being so selfish, she couldn't bear to see him out risking his life again to fight dinosaurs. So she'd kept the anomalies to herself. But she did tell him Danny was back and he'd visited Connor and Abby. So now, he was watching the door, even at twelve thirty at night, waiting for Danny to come bursting through. Jess only hoped the new team had warned him about the government surveillance, otherwise, it would have been a short trip out of the Temple house.

Jess sighed and looked at the clock, it was getting late and they both needed to get some sleep, she just had to call Lester first.

"C'mon, baby," She said, sitting up and turning off the TV, "we need to go to bed." Becker gave the door one last hopeful look before getting up as well. He began heading to their bedroom and stopped, turning to look back at Jess.

"You coming?" He asked. Jess nodded.

"I'll be there in a minute." She assured him, "Just give me a minute, I don't think anyone told Lester about Danny." Becker frowned and looked at his watch.

"It's past midnight." He said, looking confused. "I think it can wait until morning." Jess gave an internal sigh, she hated lying to him.

"I'll just leave a message then." She told him, "He likes me more anyways, he'll get over it." Becker just shrugged and walked into the bedroom. Jess grabbed her phone and called Lester's number. After a few rings, a groggy voice answered

"Mrs. Parker, do you have any idea what time it is?" Lester asked grumpily. Jess enjoyed a small sadistic smile, now he got to feel how much fun it would be to get woken up in the middle of the night and get to worry himself back to sleep.

"It's Mrs. Becker, first off." Jess corrected with a small smile, she still loved saying it. "And secondly, Danny Quinn is back."

"WHAT?" Lester shouted suddenly. Jess winced and could hear someone waking up on Lester's end of the line.

"What do you mean, Danny Quinn is back?" Lester continued, "When did he get back? What happened to Ethan? How did you find out? Where is he now? It's nothing honey, go back to sleep." The last sentence caught Jess off guard before she realized he was talking to his wife.

"All I know is he's back and he visited Connor and Abby today." She told him. "That's it."

"What about the new team?" Lester asked, calming down a bit. "Do you know how they've been?"

"Abby said Danny told them he was working with some people who knew about anomalies. She said Connor updated the blueprints they had for a locking mechanism." Jess said, "So I guess Danny is with the new team and they'll have a locking device up soon."

"Good," Lester said after a while, "that's all very good. Well, keep me informed, Mrs. Becker, and good luck."

"Thanks," Jess replied, "you too." As she hung up the phone, her thoughts went back to the pair of boys she'd given the keys to the ARC to, and she hoped they'd managed to get more help, and that they'd managed to survive everything the anomalies threw at them. As she got into bed next to Becker, who was already fast asleep, Jess wondered, as she had for the last month, what the government would do if the anomalies went public. She shook her head, nestling in closer to her husband, there was nothing she could do about it now.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"Remember what I told you," Steve told Gartus gravely, patting him on the arm.

"Trust no one, watch my back, and trust no one." Gartus repeated in a low tone, his face a mask of preparation and readiness.

"It's going to be a mad house," Darren added, watching the Roman with apprehension, "but just keep a level head and you'll do fine."

"Don't respond to anyone else." Taylor said, "You can't do anything to them so don't give them the satisfaction."

"You can do this." Emily assured him. "We've been training for a month. You're ready." Gartus gave a final nod and looked at Steve with his warrior's gaze.

"I'm ready." He said, "Start it up." Steve nodded and pressed the button.

"WhiteTechSupport92 had entered the match." The computer voice announced. Steve and the others sat back as they watched Gartus trying to play an online game of Call of Duty.

Steve allowed himself a small grin as Gartus ran around the field, shooting wildly. He'd always thought it would be funny to teach the man how to play video games, just because of how much fun they'd get out of seeing his face when he used the controller for the first time. But it had become a small team project. Ben refused to have any part in it, he was too busy with school. And Danny and Lucien had both opted out, choosing to play the 'mature adult' card. Which left Steve and Darren, and by default, Taylor and Emily, to teach Gartus about the world of video games.

Steve still wasn't sure how he felt about Emily. She was nice enough to everyone else, but she didn't seem to want anything to do with him. Which wasn't a huge problem with Steve, except she was over at his apartment every day. She seemed especially close to Taylor, and the two spent the majority of their time together. Why they needed to spend it in his apartment was the mystery.

As Gartus continued to run around the map, shooting in random directions and using swear words Steve hadn't even heard before, the anomaly detector went off. The group sighed as a whole. It had only been two days since the last anomaly, and everyone was still a little worn out from that experience. Being chased by an angry _Dracorex_ could do that to anyone.

Steve got up and looked at the coordinates while Darren began getting their equipment together. Unfortunately, the locking device still wasn't one hundred percent functional, although having Connor's improvements did help considerably. Steve frowned while he double checked where the anomaly was on the map. When he was sure he was right, he immediately pulled out his phone and called Ben. When he picked up, Steve wasted no time.

"Ben, we've got an alert. It's at an elementary school."

XXXXX

Danny rushed into the school, Steve and Ben on his heels. The others were waiting outside to find out what they were dealing with. The trio stopped in the foyer and looked around.

"Judging by the lack of screaming." Steve said in a low voice, "I'd say nothing has come through yet."

"In my experience," Danny told the pair, "something always comes through. We just have to find it before it kills someone."

"If it hasn't already." Ben added. Steve glared at him.

"Now why would you say that?" He said angrily, "That's practically begging for fate to kill someone." Danny shushed the pair, he needed to think about their plan of action.

"Excuse me," A middle aged woman walked out of a small office. "but if you're visitors, you need to sign in here please." Danny exchanged a quick look with Ben and Steve, but before any of them could make a move, a voice called out from down the hall.

"Uncle Danny." Danny looked in surprise and dread as Nicholas Temple came running down the hall to see him.

"Did you come to eat lunch with me?" The small boy asked. Danny knew he couldn't leave Connor and Abby's child alone in the school with an anomaly open.

"Yes I did." Danny responded. "I've got to sign in, and then we'll go eat lunch." The small boy beamed with happiness. His teacher came to put him back in the line with the rest of the students, but he kept looking at Danny with a huge grin on his face. Danny couldn't help smiling back and he returned the wave the boy gave him before walking off.

"Are you two eating lunch with the boy too?" The office woman asked skeptically.

"No ma'am." Steve replied confidently, "We're the exterminators, I've never met this man in my life." The woman frowned.

"We didn't call for any exterminators." She said, looking suspicious. Steve didn't miss a beat.

"Private call." He stated. To Danny's surprise, the woman's face changed from suspicion to exasperation.

"I've told Mrs. Haggerty that we'll get someone to look at her supposed roach problem, but if she wants to pay out of her own pocket then that's fine." The woman looked at Steve and Ben. "Her room is number 204. It's down the hall, take a left, then it's the third room on the right." Steve nodded calmly.

"Thank you, ma'am." He said. Danny walked into the office to sign in and get a visitor sticker.

As he walked out, Ben stopped him outside of the woman's field of vision.

"Wait in the hallway to the left." Ben instructed in a whisper. "Steve's stealing more visitor's passes, we're going to let the rest of the team in through the window in the open classroom down the hall. Then we'll get the anomaly."

"I'm going to eat lunch with Nick." Danny told Ben firmly, "If something happens, I owe it to his parents to be with him." After a moment, Ben nodded.

"Fine, but take Taylor with you, just in case." He said. Danny nodded and walked down the hallway in the direction of the lunchroom.

As soon as Steve exited the office and slapped a sticker on Ben's chest, they walked down to where Danny was. He walked over to them and they went into the unused classroom, locking the door behind them.

"That was good thinking, Steve." Danny congratulated. "I was impressed, you came up with exterminators fast and kept your head. Jenny Lewis couldn't have done better." Danny knew the New ARC constantly held themselves up to the standards of the old ARC, so he knew how much that compliment would mean to Steve. Sure enough, Steve seemed to be incredibly pleased with himself as he helped Ben lift the frosted glass window, revealing the rest of the team standing outside.

"C'mon then," Steve said with a grin, "we don't have all day." Darren climbed through the window first and walked over to Steve, holding the detector.

"There's something wrong with the detector." He said, holding it out. Steve took it from him and Danny came over for a better look.

"Something's interfering with the close range signal." Steve said, giving the detector a slight shake. "But I have no idea what."

"So we're all adults, tresspassing in an elementary school." Lucien began, closing the window behind him, "And there's a portal to prehistoric times somewhere in this school, and now we can't find it. Great."

"Cheer up," Ben said with an obviously false smile. "Nothing bad could happen in a school." Danny was surprised to see both Steve and Darren tense up.

"Bad things can happen in school." Darren said gravely, "Especially with anomalies." Danny didn't understand what the problem was, but apparently everyone else did. Ben looked ashamed of himself.

"I'm sorry," He began, "I forgot, I didn't mean to..."

"Don't worry about it." Steve said, clapping Ben on the shoulder. "Now what's the plan?"

"We'll have to split up and search the school." Ben informed the rest of the team while Steve passed out the visitors passes. "Danny and Taylor will go to the lunchroom with Nick Temple and keep an eye on him. Darren and Lucien will come with me, we'll take the east wing. Steve, you take Emily and Gartus and search the west wing. Keep in touch on the phones and kep a look out for any creatures. Good luck everyone." The team nodded as Ben finished his instructions. Danny took the lead and the New ARC walked out of the classroom on a mission.

XXXXX

Emily trailed behind Steve as he muttered angrily and slapped his palm against the detector. Gartus was bringing up the rear, trying to casually look through classroom windows for any signs of a disturbance.

"We need to find somewhere quiet, like a bathroom or a cupboard." Steve told them suddenly.

"What makes you think it isn't in a classroom?" Gartus asked. Steve sighed.

"You were a kid once, Gartus." He replied. "What would you do if a glowing ball of golden light appeared in your classroom and dinosaurs started coming out of it?" Gartus nodded his head, conceding the point.

"You didn't have to be so rude." Emily admonished, even though, from what she could tell, he didn't have any other way to interact.

"I wasn't being rude." Steve argued, "I was just being direct." Emily continued to glare at him. Steve sighed angrily.

"I'm not apologizing for something I didn't do." He stated sullenly. "I'm going to start looking for some storerooms around the corner, you two stay here and check the bathrooms." Steve walked off, leaving Emily and Gartus standing alone.

"You take the boy's bathroom." She told Gartus, "I'll take the girl's." Gartus nodded and began heading into the girl's bathroom. Emily hastily grabbed his arm.

"What're you doing?" She asked hurriedly. Gartus frowned.

"I thought that was a man." He said, pointing at the little picture. "He's wearing a toga."

"It's a dress." Emily corrected, "That's the symbol for girls now, no one wears togas anymore, remember?"

"Ah," Gartus replied. "I did think it was a bit strange to have a picture of a man wearing a toga in this time." He turned and walked off into the boy's room. Emily sighed and went into the girl's room.

She gave the room a quick check for anomalies or incursions, but couldn't find anything. As she walked back outside, she expected to find Gartus waiting outside of the boy's room as well, but he wasn't there. After three minutes, she started to get worried. Emily looked back down the hallway to see if Steve was coming back, but he didn't appear. Emily began panicking that something had happened to Gartus and now he was dead or dying. She took a deep breath and rushed into the bathroom.

Gartus was sitting on the floor next to a young blond haired boy who looked like he'd been crying earlier. They both looked up as Emily stormed into the room. Emily froze, trying to take in the scene. She frowned, looking around at the lack of anomalies or creatures.

"Is everything alright?" She asked Gartus. He smiled.

"Yes, it's fine. I was just trying to help Timmy." Gartus patted the boy's arm, who looked to be no older than six, as he stood up. Gartus walked over out of earshot with Emily.

"What are you doing?" She asked, both curious and angry.

"I'm sorry," Gartus apologized. "He was crying when I came in, and he reminded me so much of my son, Titus, I just had to see what I could do for him." Emily's mind froze in shock. She'd never even known Gartus had a son, or a family of any kind. She'd never asked. All she could manage was a strangled 'oh'. She looked back to the boy, who was wiping his eyes with the sleeves of his shirt. She couldn't imagine what kind of pain Gartus had to be in everyday he was away from his wife and child. She patted his arm consolingly.

"Take your time." She told him, "Steve and I will keep looking. You can meet back up with us when Timmy feels better." Gartus smiled at her and nodded.

"Thank you, Emily." He said. Emily walked out of the bathroom as Gartus went back and sat next to Timmy, whose face lit up.

When she got back into the hallway, Emily looked around again for Steve, but he still wasn't anywhere to be seen. She went around the corner and saw an opened door. Emily moved quickly down the hall and checked inside.

Steve had his head behind a large cabinet, checking for something. Emily stepped inside the room, stumbling unceremoniously over a box in front of the door. Steve mumbled something without looking up.

"What?" She asked, walking closer.

"Don't let the door close." Steve repeated, pulling his head back from behind the cabinet. Emily spun around, but it was too late. The door swung shut with a loud bang. Emily tried to push the door back open, but it wouldn't move.

"It locks automatically." Steve informed her angrily, "That's why I said to not let the door close. That's why I put a box there."

"I didn't know," Emily defended herself, her voice rising as well. "I couldn't hear you, you should have spoken up."

"I spoke just fine." Steve countered. "What are you even doing here anyways?"

"I was coming to help look for anomalies." She told him, trying to calm down. "What were you even doing behind the cabinet?"

"I though I heard something." He said, looking back towards the large filing cabinet. "It was nothing."

"I'll just call Gartus." Emily said, pulling out her phone. She looked at the screen and saw that she had no signal. She frowned.

"I can't get a signal." She told Steve, "Can you?" Steve pulled out his phone and checked it.

"No, me neither." He said angrily. "We'll just wait for Gartus to check this room. He's got to be one his way soon, right." Emily winced, looking away from Steve's gaze.

"He might be a little delayed." She told him. Steve frowned.

"Why would he be delayed?" He asked in a falsely calm tone.

"He's with a little boy who was crying. I think he's trying to comfort him." She said, waiting to see Steve's reaction.

"So we're locked in a storeroom with no back up and the stupid phones don't work." He said. Emily could see his entire body was shaking. She took an unconscious step backwards as she waited to see what he would do next. Suddenly, he snapped. With a vicious yell, Steve threw his phone against the far wall and punched the filing cabinet as hard as he could.

Emily was shocked, she'd never even seen Steve get angry before and now he was yelling and thrashing around the room, throwing boxes and kicking large bookshelves piled with papers and books. Emily sank back into a corner and watched, too afraid to say anything. After a few minutes, Steve seemed to wear himself out and he sat down on one of the boxes, breathing heavily. Emily stood up and walked over to him, sitting down tentatively next to him.

"I'm sorry," She said quietly, hoping he wouldn't explode again. Steve turned to face her.

"No, I'm sorry." He replied, his voice hoarse from the yelling. "It's not your fault and you shouldn't have had to see that. I've just got a lot on my mind and I'm more stressed than usual. I'm sorry." Steve looked down with an expression of shame. Emily put her hand on his arm. When he didn't throw it off, she continued.

"You can talk to me about it, if you want." She told him. "It's not like we're going anywhere." After a minute of silence, Steve nodded.

"Yeah," He said, "I'd like to talk, if you don't mind." Emily gave him a reassuring smile.

"I don't mind." She told him.

XXXXX

Taylor watched Danny talking with the small boy and for the first time, she really understood everything he'd given up to travel through the anomalies. He'd never told them his exact reasons for going back through, but Darren always thought it had to have been for some grand reason. Danny wasn't the type of man to just run off through the past for a laugh.

But watching him here with Nick, Taylor really started thinking about all the things he'd missed out on while he was gone. If he hadn't gone back through the anomaly, he would have seen Nick born, and coming to eat lunch with him wouldn't have been a random coincidence. Danny's voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Can I ask you something?" Danny said as Nick got up to take his tray to the trash can. Taylor nodded.

"What happened with Steve and Darren when Ben mentioned schools?" He asked, looking curious.

"An anomaly opened up in their school while they were in detention." Taylor told him, "Their teacher and a girl named Beth died during the incursion." Danny nodded.

"So this, working with anomalies, really is personal to them, isn't it?" he said, looking thoughtful.

"Yeah," She replied, "they were the ones who found their way into the old ARC files, it's been an obsession with them for years."

"What about you?" Danny asked, "How did all of this start for you?"

"I went through an anomaly when I was eleven." Taylor told Danny. "Cutter and Stephen went through after me and saved my life. Cutter said I could come and work with him when I grew up. I'd been waiting for years, but now, here I am."

"Living up to your expectations?" Danny asked with a smirk.

"Can't complain." Taylor responded with a grin of her own. "Occasionally I get stuck working with ex-cops that apparently don't like the twenty first century, but other than that,it's been great." As Danny was preparing to make a retort, Nick walked up to them.

"Uncle Danny, Ms. Taylor, do you want to come back to my class with me?" He asked. Danny looked at Taylor, who inclined her head back to him, passing the decision on to him. She knew he'd want to keep Nick in sight until the crisis was averted. Danny smiled at the young boy.

"We'd love to come back to class with you." He said with a tone of excitement. Nick's face lit up with happiness. He took Danny's hand and led him back to the group, Taylor following behind. Then a woman screamed.

XXXXX

Lucien led the way, with Ben and Darren trailing behind him. He was listening intently for any noise that sounded out of the ordinary. The trio had already checked several empty classrooms and closets, but they'd had no luck finding anything yet. And the detector was still malfunctioning. Lucien could tell the bad detector had Darren on edge. He knew that Darren, more than anyone, wanted to find the anomaly fast and keep any creatures away from the children.

Lucien felt the weight of his pistol underneath his jacket. He'd begun carrying it around with him since Danny and Gartus had their encounter with the spy. Lucien felt the stress of being one of the only two people on the team to be qualified in firearms. He was constantly worried that one day, he wouldn't be fast enough and someone would be hurt or killed as a result. He couldn't stand for that to happen again.

A door being kicked open from around the corner broke into Lucien's thoughts. He held up his hand for the others to stop, but before he could explain to them what he'd heard, a woman's scream filled the air. Ben and Darren turned around hastily and tore off back down the hallway. Lucien was about to follow then when he heard something else from around the corner. It sounded like the faintest noise of an anomaly. Making a snap decision, Lucien ran in the opposite direction from Ben and rounded the corner.

As he moved into the next hallway, Lucien was confronted with the sight of two men in black jumpsuits and ski masks facing him. He could see the glowing light from the open door the two men were standing in front of. Lucien began walking forward to find out who the men were and what they were doing with the anomaly. The shorter of the two men walked forward as well and began pulling something out of his pocket.

Lucien's soldier instincts kicked in and he grabbed the man's wrist, twisting it away from the pocket, and punched the man in the face with his free hand. Letting go of the man's wrist, Lucien hit him again, sending him sprawling back. The second man approached Lucien carefully as the first got to his feet.

Lucien looked around the narrow hallway for something to use as a weapon. He wanted to keep both men in front of him to keep from being surrounded. The two well built men seemed unable to stand next to each other in the tiny space, so Lucien launched himself forward, hoping to keep them pinned in front of him.

As he moved up, Lucien's right arm shot out and he grabbed the second man's head, slamming it into the wall with a dull thud. The first man delivered a solid punch to Lucien's stomach, sending him back a step. As the first man advanced and the second slid to the floor, unconscious, Lucien debated pulling out his pistol. He decided against it, choosing to use it only as a last resort, life or death situation.

The man pulled a nightclub out of one of his leg pockets and began walking menacingly towards Lucien. Lucien pulled out his pocket knife, preparing for a fight. The man swung his club at Lucien's head, but he dodged it and rammed his knife into the man's shoulder.

The man gave a yell of pain, stepping back and dropping his nightclub. He grabbed his shoulder in agony as Lucien picked up the billy club. Unfortunately, the second man had woken up. Lucien made eye contact with the man seconds before he saw the gun in his hand. As Lucien reached for his own, knowing as he did that it would be too late, the man fired.

Thousands of volts of pure pain and electricity coursed through Lucien's body as he fell to the floor, twitching with muscle spasms. He tried to yell in pain, but he couldn't make his body do anything. He felt someone kicking him in the stomach repeatedly as his body spasmed out of control. The first man leaned down in front of Lucien and, with a grunt of pain, pulled Lucien's pocket knife out of his shoulder. He looked at Lucien with a wild glint in his eyes as he placed the knife at his throat.

Suddenly, Lucien could hear someone yelling from where he'd originally come from. The men both looked up in surprise. The second man grabbed his companion's good shoulder and urged him along. The first man growled in anger and tossed the knife aside before getting up and running away as well. Ben's face filled his field of vision.

"Lucien, Lucien, talk to me. Are you ok? What happened." Ben's voice sounded tinny and out of focus. Lucien tried to tell him to go after the two men, but his mouth still wouldn't form words. Darren was looking at the anomaly, and then back at the detector, with interest.

"Are you ok?" Ben asked again. Lucien nodded, he'd survive.

"I still can't get a reading on the anomaly." Darren said, looking confused. Suddenly, the detector beeped loudly. Darren frowned and looked at it again.

"Now it's registering." He said, puzzled. Lucien tried to get off of the floor, but he still couldn't.

"Who screamed?" He asked, his tongue feeling thick and heavy.

"Don't worry about that." Ben told him, "We're taking care of it." Lucien could see Darren walking into the room with a thoughtful expression. Ben stood up and walked over to the doorway to keep an eye on him. Lucien allowed himself to lean over onto the floor and rest for a moment. He was trying to figure out who the men in the jumpsuits were and how they'd known about the anomalies and why they'd even been there in the first place.

While he rested his head against the cool, smooth school floor, Lucien could feel a slight vibration. He frowned as the vibration got louder, something large was coming their way. He tried to sit up, but his muscles were still too weak. Then, Lucien felt someone grab his arm and pul him upwards into a sitting position against the wall.

"Something's coming." Lucien told Ben hurriedly as the other man backed away from him and stood next to Darren, blocking the hallway after the door. Ben just grinned.

I know." He said, "Just sit still, you're gonna love this." Lucien looked in the direction Ben and Darren were staring and his mouth fell open.

At least twenty or thirty small dinosaurs were waddling their way towards Lucien and the others in a mini-stampede. Danny and Gartus were chasing the small dinosaurs, making loud noises as they did, herding them on. When they got closer, Ben and Darren began making noises too, causing the creatures to veer away from them as well, leading the small dinosaurs into the anomaly.

As the last of the dinosaurs went through, Danny looked down at Lucien with confusion.

"What happened to you?" He asked, still wearing a broad grin.

"Stun gun." Ben answered. Danny looked up suddenly, his grin quickly replaced with his stern business expression.

"Who tased you?" He asked Lucien, "What happened?" Lucien tried to get to his feet. He stumbled, but Ben grabbed one of his arms and Gartus took the other. They stood him up, holding onto him for support.

"Two guys in jumpsuits and ski masks." Lucien told Danny. "They walked out of the anomaly room and saw me. We got into a fight and I got stunned. I think one of them was going to kill me if Ben hadn't gotten here in time." Ben nodded. Danny looked thoughtful and concerned.

"I don't like this at all." He said, "Spies tailing us and now men who know about the anomalies and aren't afraid to kill over them." Suddenly, the anomaly closed, causing everyone to look where it had been.

"We need to get out of here." Danny said tersely. Ben nodded as he and Gartus both put one of Lucien's arms over their shoulders. Suddenly, Taylor frowned.

"Where are Steve and Emily?" She asked, looking around.

XXXXX

Steve was sitting across from Emily, holding her hands as she talked to him. He didn't even remember when he started holding her hands, it just happened. He felt embarrassed and slightly ashamed that she'd seen him loose control as badly as he did, but he was grateful that she didn't seem to hate him for it. She'd calmed him down and let him vent. It had been halfway through their conversation that Steve had remembered she was studying psychology in school. But now, the conversation had thankfully drifted away from Steve's stresses and anger issues. Now they were just talking about anything, but he was still holding her hands.

"First girlfriend?" Steve asked for clarification. Emily grinned and nodded. Steve racked his brains, it had been a while since he'd had any girlfriends, not that he'd ever admit it to Emily.

"Jane Sanderson when I was fifteen." He said finally. "You?"

"Mark Aadams." She responded with a sly smile, "Fourteen." Steve grinned, she wanted a competition.

"First kiss." He challenged, grinning.

"Fourteen," She replied, "same guy." Steve tried to hide his disappointment, she'd beaten him again.

"First kiss in a storeroom." He amended, glad for the inspiration. "Sixteen." He added with with a tone of pride.

"Never." She admitted. Steve grinned, he'd won that challenge. Then he realized that he and Emily were a lot closer than he remembered and her eyes were closed. Steve's mind made the connection and he leaned in.

"Steve! Emily! Where are you?" At Gartus' call, Steve and Emily jerked back from each other. The both exchanged nervous glances and Emily pulled her hands back hastily.

"We're in here Gartus." She called loudly, "It locks from the inside, we're stuck."

"Ok," Gartus replied, "I'll go get the others." As his footsteps faded off in the distance, both Steve and Emily avoided each other's gaze.

"We should probably, um, you know." Steve said, gesturing for them to stand up.

"Oh, yeah." Emily agreed, nodding her head rapidly. They both stood up quickly and waited apart from each other.

"So what happened," Emily began, "it wasn't anything... I mean, I didn't want..."

"It never happened." Steve said calmly, "We never have to mention it."

"Exactly." Emily said, "We were just stuck in a storeroom together and that's it."

"Yep." Steve agreed, "Nothing else. We just sat in here and talked. Agreed?"

"Agreed." Emily responded.

At that moment, a sword was thrust through the opening between the door and it's frame. With a grunt from the outside, the door was thrown open. Steve and Emily saw the expectant faces of Danny, Darren, Taylor, and Gartus, who were all standing in front of the doors with slight smiles. Gartus slid his sword back into its sheath inside of his coat as Danny spoke.

"Cozy?" He asked with a cheeky grin. "You two didn't seem to be in a hurry for us to find you."

"I don't think they wanted to be found." Darren added with a smirk.

"Don't look at me." Steve bristled, "Girl wonder here locked us in with her amazing displays of coordination and observation." As he'd predicted, that made Emily mad.

"Well maybe if the supposed 'technogenius' could build a detector that worked, we wouldn't have had to search individual rooms."

"So you're both fine, then?" Taylor asked, cutting off Steve's retort. They both nodded and Steve looked at Darren.

"What happened at the anomaly?" He asked. Darren just grinned.

"We'll fill you in at the flat." He said. "Some of us were working while you were 'locked up' in the storeroom." Steve shook his head as they all left for their cars. Darren didn't get sarcastic very often, but when he did, he just couldn't stop. Apparently, mocking Steve was cause enough for Darren to use his sarcasm. As he got into the backseat of the car and Emily sat next to him, Steve thought about how awkward working together was going to be until the two of them reached some sort of agreement.

XXXXX

Darren grinned at Steve and Emily's faces of disbelief.

"You herded dinosaurs." Steve repeated to Danny incredulously. Danny just smiled mysteriously.

"We were lucky they were harmless." Ben added. "_Coeulruvaurus_, burrowers and herbivores."

"And adorable." Taylor said, "They were so cute."

"How'd you get witnesses to believe they didn't see a dinosaur?" Steve asked. Darren held in a sigh, Steve always worried when he didn't come up with the cover story.

"There were no witnesses." Taylor said.

"Some woman started screaming her head off because she saw a mouse." Danny explained. "So Taylor and I followed it out of the lunchroom. I had to leave poor Nick there all by himself."

"Then all of a sudden," Taylor said, picking up the story. "a _Coeulruvaurus_ came burrowing out of the wall in front of us. Then another, and another, then they all poured out."

"By this time, Darren and I had reached the others." Ben said. "And Danny told us to go ahead and find somewhere to put them."

"So Ben and I went running off." Darren told everyone who wasn't there. "And we got to the hallway where we'd been with Lucien."

"Except at that point, I'd been beaten and tasered by two guys in jumpsuits." Lucien added. Emily's eyes grew wide.

"Someone attacked you?" She asked with concern. Lucien shrugged.

"I got in a few blows." He said modestly. "They didn't get away without something to remember me by."

"And then we shepherded the creatures back into the anomaly." Gartus finished.

"And then," Darren said with a grin at his best friend. "we thought, where are Steve and Emily and how can we ruin their romantic rendezvous?" He was slightly pleased to see both Steve and Emily turn bright red. It wasn't often he had a chance to give Steve any kind of humorous abuse, so when the opportunity arose, Darren took it with gusto.

"I think we need to talk about the men that attacked Lucien." Taylor said, looking at the others. "Because it obviously means that someone else knows about the anomalies, and they don't want to share."

"I think you were right last time." Lucien told Danny, "I think this is bigger than just the government. It just felt like something worse." Darren frowned, thinking about what had been bugging him since they had left the school.

"I think whoever those guys were," He began slowly, "they were blocking the anomaly's signal." Ben nodded.

"The detector did work as soon as they were gone." He admitted, "But it could have been coincidence. Maybe there's something wrong with the detectors and it only worked right in front of the anomaly."

"Oh come on." Steve interjected, "If any of us were that lucky, we wouldn't be chasing dinosaurs all day. Whoever those people were, they can block our short-range detectors, maybe even the main one."

"And besides," Darren added, "we checked the detectors when we got back. There's nothing wrong with them." Ben nodded again.

"Fine," He conceded, "does anyone have any ideas on how to handle these guys?" The room was quiet as everyone thought about solutions.

"Ok then," Ben said, looking at everyone again. "We'll just have to deal with them the next time we see them. Until then, I want everyone in pairs on an alert. No excuses, always have at least one other person with you, just in case." Everyone nodded and began getting up to leave.

As Ben, Danny, and Lucien left, Emily grabbed Taylor and pulled her into the kitchen. Gartus got up to leave and Steve immediately came over and sat next to Darren.

"So are you going to tell me what really happened in the storeroom?" Darren asked with a small grin.

"I almost kissed Emily." Steve admitted after a moment. Darren shrugged, confused about what the problem was.

"So?" He asked, "You've kissed loads of girls before, and you've been shut down plenty of times too. So maybe this one works with you to fight dinosaurs, but so what? I don't get why it's such a big deal to you."

"Because..." Steve began, trailing off. Darren waited while Steve composed himself. "I think I really like her, Darren. And you of all people know how bad I can get when this happens." Darren nodded, remembering Steve's past problems with women.

Casual flirting he could handle without a problem, but when he really started to develop feelings for the girl and he wasn't sure if she returned them, that was when Steve got into trouble. He would either harass her until she hated him or he'd ignore her completely, expecting that she'd do the same. Expressing his emotions had never been his strong point, it came as a result of two uncaring parents. So now that he had a girl he really liked, Steve had no idea what to do.

"As cliche as it sounds," Darren advised, "just talk to her. I don't know if you noticed, but she's talking with Taylor right now. And what do you think they're talking about?" Steve gave a small grin.

"I will talk to her." He said. "I'll do it tomorrow." Darren looked at his friend with a proud smile.

He was proud of both of them. They'd both come so far from the two nerds who barely survived regular school, not just the detention where they were almost killed by dinosaurs. Now they were two men on a team of people who kept others safe from the dinosaurs. And today they'd gone into a school to save kids. The circle was complete. Taylor and Emily walked out of the kitchen, Emily steadfastly avoiding Steve's gaze as she headed out the door.

"I'm going to walk Taylor to her car." Darren told Steve as he stood up, "I'll see you later." Steve nodded as Darren took Taylor's hand and they left the apartment.

As they walked, Taylor began laughing.

"What's so funny?" He asked, looking at his girlfriend curiously.

"It's not so much funny as... well I guess it is funny." she said, "Emily and Steve almost kissed in the storeroom. Now she said she can't stop thinking about him." Darren grinned.

"Steve told me almost the exact same thing." He admitted.

"I told her to just talk to Steve." Taylor said, "I told her that he could act like an adult when the situation calls for it."

"I told Steve the same thing." Darren said again. "Hopefully they should be talking to each other now." Taylor nodded and they walked the rest of the way to her car in silence.

"Can I admit something to you?" Taylor asked as they reached the hood of her car.

"Of course you can." Darren assured her, "What's up?"

"I think you were right about this getting more and more dangerous." She said, looking scared for the first time.

"I mean, someone tried to kill Lucien today." She continued. "That could have been anyone of us. It could have been you." Darren pulled her into a tight hug.

"But it wasn't me today," He told her comfortingly, "and Lucien wasn't killed. Now we know we're not the only ones who know about anomalies and we know to watch out for this other group. They won't catch us off guard next time."

"I hope you're right." Taylor responded. Darren let go of her and checked his watch, which read four o'clock. They still had plenty of time to do anything.

"We should go see a movie." Darren suggested. Taylor looked surprised.

"Right now?" She asked. Darren nodded and she smiled. "Ok, any you want to see in particular."

"We'll choose when we get there." Darren told her. "There's no sense worrying about it if it until you have to." Taylor nodded and they got into her car, driving off for the movies.


	6. Chapter 6

**AN:** As a warning, from here on out, things are going to get a little dark. Bullets will fly and people are going to get hurt. And as a reminder, I am an American, so my action heroes kill people. That means when the poopy hits the paddles, guys like Lucien and Danny are going to shoot to kill. Just thought I'd give you fair warning, if you got into fanfiction for cuddly romantic pieces, turn around now. But if you're okay with a little action and violence, please read and enjoy.

**Chapter 6**

Darren sat, with his arm around Taylor, enjoying the movie and trying to unwind from their stressful day at the elementary school. Although he tried to focus on the movie, his mind kept wandering back to what Taylor had said about the dangers they were facing and about the men that tried to kill Lucien. Controlling the anomalies had gotten a lot more dangerous and they had to be better prepared. A woman's scream from the back of the theater broke into Darren's thoughts.

"What the hell is that thing?" She yelled. Darren and Taylor both looked at the same time, fearing the worst. The woman was backing away from a small creature that had gotten into the theater when she opened the door. Darren groaned as the baby velociraptor hopped around excitedly, squeaking at the other moviegoers. Darren and Taylor leapt to their feet.

"Call Ben," Darren said quickly as he moved to get people away from the baby dinosaur, "If there's one,there's probably more." As Taylor pulled out her phone, Darren whistled loudly to get everyone's attention.

"I need everyone to exit the theater by the fire exits in the rear." He called. "I'm with the zoo and this is an escaped Komodo Dragon. They can be very dangerous if you're not trained."

"Komodo dragon?" One man yelled, backing away from the raptor that was now nipping at the frightened people. "That's no Komodo dragon, that's a raptor." Darren forced a laugh.

"You'd be amazed at how often we get that." He told the man, who now looked less certain. Darren knew he needed to get everyone out of the theater as soon as he could, before any adult raptors showed up.

"If everyone could please exit from the fire doors." Taylor yelled over the commotion. "Once you're all gone, we can contain the creature."

People began moving out of the doors while Darren kept his eyes on the raptor. The constant noise and movement seemed to have cowed it into hiding beneath one of the seats. As the last person left, Darren looked at Taylor.

"We need to get this one contained and find the anomaly." He said tersely. Taylor nodded and looked around.

"This is contained." She said after a moment. "We can leave it here and find the anomaly." Darren thought about it for a second.

"That's fine." He agreed. He and Taylor ran out of the theater, slamming the door behind them before the raptor could get out as well.

Darren looked around the hallway of the movie theater until he saw what he was looking for. He pulled the fire alarm, causing a loud blaring noise to sound throughout the building. Taylor looked at him with a small smile.

"That'll clear them out." She said, "But the fire department will be on it's way." Darren frowned, he hadn't thought about that, but it was too late to do anything else.

"Let's get this anomaly cleared up, then." He said, looking around for any sign of an anomaly or incursion.

Suddenly, a full grown raptor walked around the corner and looked at the pair of them. It seemed puzzled for a minute before cawing loudly. Darren grabbed Taylor's hand and the pair of them sprinted down the hallway away from the raptor. With another loud caw, it gave chase.

As they ran, Darren looked for anywhere to hide until the rest of the team arrived. Ahead to their left, he saw an open door. He pointed it out to Taylor, but as they headed for it, Darren saw a young boy, no older than six, standing in the middle of a side hallway. As Taylor ran to the room, Darren cursed loudly and let go of her hand. She looked in shock as Darren tore off down the side hallway to get the boy.

Darren scooped up the boy, who seemed unable to move, into his arms and slung the child over his shoulder. As he turned around, the raptor skidded into the entrance of the hallway. Darren stopped dead and the two of them stared at each other for a tense moment.

A clanging noise caught the raptors attention as Taylor banged two pots together from behind it. The raptor took a step out of the doorway towards her. Darren bolted behind the raptor, running to the door. When he got to the open doorway, Darren began yelling and making noise to get the raptors attention as well. The raptor turned towards Darren, giving Taylor time to run past it and into the room. Darren followed her and slammed the door behind himself, locking the deadbolt.

The room appeared to be a staff lounge and Taylor put the pots she'd found back in the sink. Darren looked at her as he set down the boy he'd rescued. All three of them jumped as the raptor outside slammed into the door. Darren looked the boy over, he seemed unhurt, just terrified. He kneeled down to the boy's level and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"What's your name?" Darren asked, trying to be consoling. The boy just shook, apparently unable to speak. The raptor plowed into the door again and cracks appeared in the wood.

"We need a plan." Taylor said, looking around the room. Darren stood up as well and searched for inspiration. He saw a rolling trolley against the wall where the door was located. He could slam it into the raptor when it came through, as long as the raptor didn't leap at Taylor or the child immediately. Another bash on the door focused Darren. He grabbed a pitcher of water and handed it to Taylor.

"When it gets through," Darren instructed, looking her in the eyes. "throw the water on it. I'm going to hit it with the trolley and pin it to the wall. Hopefully." Taylor frowned.

"Why would the water stop it?" She asked, looking scared and confused.

"Wouldn't you be confused if you burst into a room and someone threw water on you?" He questioned, only half joking. "I only need it to stop for a second." Taylor nodded and maneuvered the child behind her, holding the pitcher in readiness. Darren ran over to the trolley and made sure the wheels were unlocked. The raptor hit the door again and it cracked outward, the next hit would be the last. Darren looked at Taylor, still putting on a brave face against a raptor, armed only with water. She looked at him and they made eye contact.

"I love you." He said sincerely. He had to make sure she knew, just in case. She smiled at him.

"I love you too." She responded. Then the raptor burst into the room.

As soon as it came through the door, Taylor threw the water into it's face. As Darren had hoped, the raptor stopped, shaking its head. With a savage roar, Darren shoved the trolley as hard as he could, hitting the raptor at a run. The raptor, caught off guard by the two part water and trolly attack, gave no resistance. Darren slammed it into the wall, pinned by the large cart. Unfortunately, the raptor was still conscious and snapped at Darren from the other side of the trolley. Darren leaned back, trying to avoid the creature's massive jaws.

Just then, someone clapped Darren's shoulder from behind. He turned to see Steve walking past him, holding what looked like a stun gun. Steve fired almost nonchalantly at the raptor. The creature spasmed uncontrollably before flopping against the trolley, its head still twitching. The two friends looked at each other for a moment and Steve grabbed Darren in a tight hug.

"Never do this to me again." Steve admonished while still hugging Darren. Darren laughed.

"It wasn't part of the plan. I just wanted a quiet movie." The friends broke apart and Steve looked at the small child.

"What's your name, little guy?" He asked as Darren held Taylor tightly.

"T- Trevor." The boy answered meekly. Steve grinned.

"Well, Trevor," He said, "you're lucky you found two smart people like my friends here to protect you."

"Yeah, smart." Danny interjected, walking into the room. "You two are geniuses. You trapped yourself in a room with only one way in or out and that way was blocked by a raptor. Real smart."

"We're fine, by the way." Darren said with a grin. Danny smiled widely.

"And thank God for that." He said, pulling both of them into a hug. "You can't go scaring us like that."

"Why does everyone act like we wanted this?" Darren said, still smiling. "I just wanted a quiet movie."

"Are there more raptors?" Taylor asked, looking between Danny and Steve.

"Gartus and Lucien are searching the building." Danny replied, leading them out of the lounge. "And Ben and Emily are looking for the anomaly. We're gonna have to find it fast and get out of here. Charlie told the firefighters there was a false alarm, but they can't delay the police for very long. Too many people called from your theater saying there was a monster loose."

"What did you tell people?" Steve asked curiously.

"Komodo dragon." Darren replied, slightly embarrassed. He knew Steve could have come up with something better. But surprisingly, Steve laughed.

"Good thinking." Steve complimented, "Komodo dragon, who would believe that." The four ARC members stopped in the lobby and looked around for the others.

"Where'd you get a stun gun?" Darren asked after a moment of silence. Steve grinned mischievously.

"I realized that the EMD's were basically big tasers." He explained, "So I wanted to see how effective an actual taser was. Lucien had a spare, so he let be use it to go rescue you."

"I'd say it worked rather well." Taylor commented. As Steve was about to reply, Ben walked into the lobby from behind the concession stand, Emily following behind him. They both gave a sigh of relief when they saw Darren and Taylor.

"We found the anomaly." He informed them. "It's in a small storage closet. But we've got to go as soon as possible."

"What about the raptors?" Darren asked. He didn't like the idea of leaving a pack of raptors in a movie theater or leaving an anomaly open and unmonitored. As if on cue, Gartus walked into the lobby holding the baby raptor by its neck and holding his sword, which was now covered in blood. The raptor was squirming and writhing in Gartus' grip, but he gave it a little shake.

"Do we kill baby raptors?" He asked, looking at the others. "Lucien and I have killed the rest, but we didn't know about the baby." Darren and the others looked at each other. After a moment, Ben shrugged.

"Eh, let it live." He said. "Toss it back through the anomaly with the bodies." Gartus nodded and walked off. Ben checked something on his phone. He looked up with a worried expression.

"We've got to go." He said quickly, hopping over the counter. "Charlie texted me, the police will be here in one minute."

"What about the anomaly?" Steve asked as everyone moved to the back of the theater. "We can't just leave it here. Especially if raptors are coming through."

"We don't have a choice." Danny told him, urging Steve along.

"I'll text Charlie and tell him to keep people out of the closet and to stay wary." Ben said as the group ran down the hallway. "That's the best we can do." Steve nodded as the eight of them exited the movie theater into the setting sunlight.

After leaving the theater, they were all sitting together at Darren and Steve's apartment. It had happened by unspoken consent, no one had made the decision, they just all arrived and sat down, talking casually. In the middle of the conversation, Gartus snapped his head up and looked around. Danny frowned at him.

"What's up, Gartus?" He asked. Gartus' eyebrows furrowed together.

"I'm not sure." He replied slowly, "I just had a bad feeling."

"What do you mean a bad feeling?" Emily asked while Gartus continued to frown and look around the room.

"The last time it happened, my company was almost ambushed by Picts." Gartus elaborated, sounding distracted. Darren looked at the others, they had never heard Gartus talk about his life 2nd century Rome .

"I just had a bad feeling, so I sent half the men on a different, parallel, route." Gartus finished.

"Yeah," Steve said, "but that could've just been-" Steve was cut off as someone kicked the door in.

Darren looked towards the doorway, leaping to his feet like everyone else. A man in a black jumpsuit charged into the room and leveled his assault rifle at Taylor. Time seemed to slow down for Darren as he realized what was happening. Without making any conscious decision, Darren pushed Taylor out of the path of fire as he saw the man pull the trigger.

The impact sent Darren sprawling backwards. He hit the wall hard and slid down it. He couldn't feel anything but the cold spreading from his chest. He looked down and saw the red blossoming across his t shirt. The world began getting fuzzy and he could hear yelling from far away, but he didn't seem to mind. Darren's last thoughts were about Taylor, and how he'd saved her life. He was a hero.

XXXXX

The entire world had gone insane, and Danny Quinn was just trying to stay above the current. He'd heard the man kick in the door and reacted like everyone else. Then, in a burst of gunfire, the man had shot Darren in the chest. A red haze clouded Danny's vision. He didn't care what he did anymore, just as long as he hurt everyone responsible.

Danny pulled his gun from the back pocket of his jeans before he'd even realized what he was doing. Far away, he could hear Steve yelling, but it didn't matter now. All that mattered was hitting them back.

As the man in the jumpsuit moved his rifle, Danny fired. His first shot hit the man in the knee; his second, in the head. Danny didn't care anymore, he just wanted to kill as many of the people who'd killed Darren as he could.

More men ran into the room and Danny fired at them as well. The gunshots from the other side of the living room meant that Lucien felt the same way too. The men in jumpsuits obviously weren't expecting armed opposition and they retreated back down the hallway, Danny and Lucien firing after them.

"We need to get out of here." Ben shouted. He tried to pull Steve away from Darren's body, but the young man wouldn't move. Tears were streaming down his face ashe tried to stay with his friend. Danny looked at the group of terrified kids. He'd already failed one of them, he had to get the rest out.

"C'mon." Danny yelled, "Everyone needs to go. We've got to get out." Steve had a wild look in his eyes.

"I can't leave him." Steve yelled. Danny could hear men shouting in the hallways outside.

"There's nothing you can do for him." Emily told Steve, pulling him to his feet. "Danny's right, we've got to go."

Danny took the lead and headed to the door. Ben pulled Taylor, who seemed to be in shock, along with him while Emily kept a tight grip on Steve's hand. Danny looked at Lucien.

"I'll take point, you bring up the rear." He instructed. Lucien nodded and Danny ran out into the hallway with a wild shout, firing his gun to scatter the men in the hallway.

The New ARC team ran down the hallway, bullets flying through the air. Danny held the stairwell door open while returning fire down the hallway. When Lucien got to the door, they both ran in and slammed it shut behind themselves.

Gartus took the lead down the stairs to the parking garage. Another man in a jumpsuit came running up the steps to stop them. Gartus cut the man down immediately and the rest of the team followed him into the garage.

Several men were standing by the vehicles, but they obviously hadn't been warned anyone was coming. Danny leveled his gun as the men put their hands in the air to surrender. Steve punched one man savagely, knocking him to the ground. Steve grabbed the man's pistol, aiming it at the man's head with a wild look in his eyes. Thankfully, Ben snatched the gun out of his grip. Danny was worried about Steve, but he needed to get everyone out.

"Lucien, you take Taylor and Gartus." Danny instructed, "Ben, Emily, and Steve, you're with me. Everyone, ditch your phones." As the others threw their phones on the ground and got into the cars, Danny pulled his out of his pocket. He got into the car and dialed Connor's number. He had to warn them too. Connor picked up as Danny drove out of the carpark, Lucien right behind him.

"L'Connor Temple." Connor answered in a terrible French accent.

"Connor, listen to me." Danny said quickly, "Someone is targeting people who've worked with anomalies. You need to get your family and get out, now. I don't have time to explain, just warn the others and get out. Ditch your phones and go into hiding. Good luck." As Connor sputtered on the other line, Danny disconnected the call and threw his phone out of the window. He hoped Connor could get them out. Danny tried to think of somewhere to hide.

"I don't think we're out of the woods yet." Ben said warningly, looking behind them. Danny turned and saw two black SUVs following them, and getting closer. Danny weaved through traffic, trying to get alongside Lucien to communicate his plan. Luckily, Lucien was able to pull up next to him. They both rolled down their windows.

"You got a plan?" Lucien yelled over the noise of wind and traffic.

"Benton woods." Danny replied. "We can hide there. We just have to loose the tails first."

"Split up." Lucien advised, "We'll take one, you take the other. We'll meet you there." Danny nodded and swerved suddenly into a turn lane.

"One's following us." Ben said from the passenger seat. Danny kept his eyes on the road, racking his brains to remember what people had done while he was in car chases.

"Cause an accident." Steve said in a dull, lifeless voice. Danny looked back at him in surprise, Steve hadn't said anything since they'd left the apartment. Emily still had a tight grip on his hand. Danny and Ben exchanged a quick look.

"Sounds like a good plan to me." Ben said after a moment. Danny nodded and looked back at the traffic behind him.

The SUV was only one car behind them. Danny could see the car in the next lane trying to pass his car. Danny had a moment of regret for what he was going to do, and then he cut sharply across the lane, causing the driver to jerk his wheel in surprise. Danny's plan worked as the car in the next lane swerved, causing the car in front of the SUV to hit it, with the SUV immediately crashing into the back of the second car. Danny floored the accelerator as he looked back to see a man getting out of the SUV and glaring at Danny's car. Danny kept driving to Benton woods.

When they got to the entrance to Benton woods, Danny parked the car and shut it off. The four of them all got out of the car without speaking. Danny went to the trunk of his car and began handing out flashlights.

"We need to find Lucien and the others." Ben said, looking around.

"Or they could find you." Lucien answered, walking out of the wood line with Taylor and Gartus following behind him. Danny checked them over, they all seemed to be unhurt, just frightened and worried.

"We'll camp in the woods for tonight." Danny told the group. "We'll work on finding out more information in the morning." The others nodded, except for Steve, who was still glaring at the ground. Danny led the group on the path that would take them deeper into the woods.

XXXXX

Ben blew on the fire and watched the small flame pick up. Lucien stood over his shoulder and watched, nodding approvingly. Ben stood up.

"Told you I could handle myself in the woods." He said with a forced grin. Lucien smiled back, but Ben could tell there wasn't any emotion in it. Everyone felt the same way, they were just trying to act like nothing was wrong and do what had to be done. Ben kept the memory of Darren's death pushed down, he couldn't deal with that fact and try to keep a look out for anyone who might be coming. The only person who wasn't present at their makeshift camp was Steve, who'd gone off to be alone almost as soon as Danny had chosen a place to stay.

Ben, like everyone else, was worried about Steve, even more than he was worried about the group's survival. Steve had been unresponsive since they escaped the apartment, only answering basic questions. Ben knew he barely understood the pain Steve had to be going through. It was all he could do to keep himself from stopping completely and sobbing, and he'd only know Darren for a few months. Granted, Darren had become one of his closest friends in those few months and someone who he knew he could rely on in a crisis, but he'd still only known him for a short amount of time. Danny's whistle brought Ben out of his thoughts. Danny motioned for everyone to sit in a circle around the fire.

As they sat down, Ben looked over the faces of his teammates. Danny looked determined to protect the rest of the group and keep them safe. Gartus and Lucien both had the look of men who'd seen too many deaths and didn't want to deal with another. Emily looked like Ben felt, upset, but trying to keep a calm and comforting exterior. And Taylor, Taylor just looked dead. She, like Steve, was barely speaking to anyone. She seemed to still be in shock, as if she was waiting for someone to wake her up. Danny spoke first.

"We have two immediate problems." He said, looking at everyone in turn. "How to deal with whoever attacked us, and Steve."

"I'm worried about him." Emily volunteered, "He was going to kill that man in the garage."

"We need to give him time to work it out on his own." Lucien added, "We all need time."

"How are we going to find out who attacked us?" Gartus asked.

"They'll find us." Taylor said suddenly, "They found out where we were, they'll find us again."

"I've been thinking about that." Ben pointed out, "I don't think they knew who we were or where we lived. If they did, they would've moved by now."

"I think Ben's right." Lucien added, "We put ourselves on their radar at the school. They obviously have some sort of anomaly detecting device as well, so when the one opened at the theater, they must have known about it too."

"Someone probably followed us to the apartment." Danny finshed.

"So we find them and we make them pay." Steve said, walking up to the group and sitting between Emily and Ben. Everyone looked at him in surprise, he seemed to be completely in control.

"But how will we find them?" Gartus repeated. Steve looked grim.

"Like Taylor said, they'll find us." He stated solemnly. "And we'll be ready."

After the fireside conversation was over, Ben went to sit down next to Steve, who was sitting a little way off from the rest of the group. Ben sat next to Steve and the pair of them were quiet for a moment.

"If you want to talk," Ben said quietly, "I'll listen. If you just want to sit here in silence, I'll sit too. But you need someone with you now, I don't want you off on your own again." Steve nodded, but stayed silent. After several minutes, in which both men stared at the fire, Steve spoke.

"Did I ever tell you why Darren and I got detention in the first place?" He asked. Ben shook his head, they'd always discussed the events of their detention, not why they'd gotten it in the first place.

"Darren had a crush on this girl, Beth." Steve continued. "And Beth had gotten detention one Saturday. That Thursday, Darren told me during chemistry class that he wanted to get detention too. I thought it was a stupid idea until Darren admitted his crush on Beth. He thought having detention with her would give him a chance to get to know her better. He just wanted her to like him." Steve paused for a moment, obviously collecting himself. After taking a deep breath, he continued his story.

"I wanted to help my friend out, who wouldn't. So I grabbed the nearest flasks of chemicals and started mixing them together. Made quite a mess, and a seriously bad smell. We both got detention that Saturday. And that's how we ended up here. We both got involved with all of this over a girl that didn't even give Darren the time of day." Steve was quiet for a moment while Ben mulled over the story.

"I don't know why I wanted to tell you that." Steve added, "It just seemed important that you know." They both sat quietly for another few minutes. Ben noticed Steve had stopped watching the fire and had begun watching Emily. Ben looked over the other members of the group as they followed Lucien's instructions on constructing makeshift tents.

"I don't know what to do about Emily." Steve admitted after a while. Ben turned to look at him in surprise.

"What?" He asked, confused at the change in topic. "We were talking about Darren a minute ago."

"I know," Steve responded, "but I don't want to think about that right now. So I'm thinking about Emily. I can't tell if she likes me or not." Ben looked at his friend, who seemed completely serious, and shrugged. He said he'd talk if Steve wanted to talk.

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm not that great with women." Ben told Steve. "I need more advice than you do."

"She kept holding my hand after we left the apartment." Steve said, still watching Emily. "But I don't know how to read that. Was she saying, 'I'm sorry your best friend died', or was she saying, 'I'm sorry your best friend died, and when you're ready, let's go out for texting and scones'."

"What?" Ben asked again in confusion. "'Texting and scones'?"

"It's from Doctor Who." Steve replied, "Honestly, Ben, how can you say you're a British citizen if you don't watch Doctor Who?" Ben looked at Steve, who had a hint of a smile on his face. He was glad to see his friend already starting to get back to his trademark humor.

"I have better things to do than watch sci-fi all day." Ben teased. Steve gave a short bark of laughter.

"Yeah, why watch sci-fi when you can live it, right?" He said, grinning now. Ben just smiled. He knew now that Steve would get better, he wouldn't be back to his old self, but he would recover.

XXXXX

Emily sat with her back against a tree, watching Gartus tie snares in the thin metal wire Lucien had in his car. She saw Steve walking over to her, and to her surprise, he sat down next to her. They both sat quietly for a moment.

"How are you doing?" Emily asked after a minute, unable to stand the silence any longer. Steve shrugged.

"All things considering," He began, "I'm getting better." Emily nodded and they both lapsed back into silence.

Emily was battling a fierce internal struggle. She wanted to take his hand again and tell him how she felt. Emily realized that Darren's death had focused her, she'd realized that she had no idea what she would do if it had been him. Emily just wanted to grab Steve and tell him everything she was feeling, but the other side of her mind gave an argument.

The other side of her mind was telling Emily not to even begin to start talking to Steve about her feelings. He'd just lost his best friend, he didn't need to deal with her as well. Beside her, Steve took a deep breath and let it out again. He turned to face her.

"I told Darren I would do this," He said quickly, "and I haven't had the chance until now, so here it goes. I was terrified today, not just for everyone's safety, but that something was going to happen to you before I told you how much I cared about you. That scared me more than anything else. So whatever happens, I just want you to know how much you mean to me." Emily was shocked, he'd said almost exactly what she'd been thinking. Steve was looking at her with a hopeful expression. He seemed worried about her response, but exhilarated that he'd finally gotten if off of his chest. She smiled at him.

"You just said everything I wanted to, but in a deeper voice." She told him, still smiling. Steve's eyes widened and he broke into a grin as he took her hand.

"Please don't start kissing." Gartus interrupted suddenly. Emily and Steve jumped apart in surprise as they both looked at Gartus. The Roman grinned at them.

"Don't mind me." He said sarcastically, "You two have your romantic conversation. I'll just be sitting over here, making traps so we can eat in the morning." Steve smiled and shook his head.

"If it'll stop you complaining, I'll make some snares." Steve told him, standing up. The centurion handed him some wire. Emily sat back against the tree and watched the New ARC team moving through the camp, they may have been tired and hurt, but at least they were together.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN:** Two things: 1). Sorry for the delay, life's been getting in my way. It happens. B). A minor correction to chapter 5. The dinosaurs they encountered were Diictodons (like Sid and Nancy), not Coeulruvaurus (like Rex). Thank you to my anonymous reviewer for pointing this out to me. Sorry about that. That's all, please enjoy Chapter 7.

**Chapter 7**

Steve shot straight up, looking around wildly. He took stock of his surroundings as the events of the previous day set in. The sun was rising and the morning air was still chilly. Emily was sleeping on the hard ground next to him, her body facing away from the sunlight.

Steve stood up, putting the jacket he'd been using as a blanket over Emily. He looked around at the sleeping forms of his friends. After a quick head count, he realized that both Lucien and Gartus were missing. After stretching slightly, Steve headed down the only path into the woods.

As he walked, his thoughts inevitably wandered back to the previous day and thoughts of his best friend. He quickly pushed the memory of Darren's death to the back of his mind. He'd come to the conclusion the night before that he couldn't handle the death of his closest friend and still be useful to the rest of the team. So he'd avoided all thoughts of Darren. Steve thought of himself as the 'other Steve'; the Steve who didn't have to worry about his best friend, the Steve who could focus on the immediate problems and contribute to the team's safety.

As he got farther down the path, Steve saw Lucien and Gartus sitting in silence, each cleaning a squirrel that had been caught in the traps they'd set up the night before. When he got closer, both Lucien and Gartus looked up in surprise and held their knives out. Steve wasn't surprised by their jumpiness, but they both returned to their work as Steve sat down beside them.

"There's nothing you could have done." Lucien said suddenly, breaking the silence. Steve looked at him in surprise.

"How'd you know what I was thinking about?" He asked, slightly shocked. Lucien shrugged with a small smile.

"Because I've been there before, and it's what I've been thinking about." He replied.

"And me." Gartus added, looking up. "I think that question has been on everyone's mind. There's nothing anyone could have done. No one was expecting them to open fire." The three men sat in silence for a while, each lost in their own thoughts.

"Has this happened to either of you before?" Steve asked after a moment. They both nodded.

"I lost my brother, Gaius, in a Celt attack." Gartus said unexpectedly. Steve and Lucien both looked at each other in surprise; Gartus rarely spoke about his life.

"It was my first time commanding anyone." He continued, "Gaius had just joined Caesar's army and I requested him in my battalion. I wanted to fight side by side with my brother and keep him safe. But when the battle started, things quickly spiraled out of control. The Celt numbers were much higher than we'd anticipated, and we were being overrun. There was a gap in our line and the Celts were charging straight for it. Gaius' squad was closest, I had no choice but to send them to try and plug the gap." Gartus paused for a moment to compose himself.

"But the Celts were too many." He continued, "By the time I got to his side, he'd already been mortally injured. My younger brother died in my arms." As he finished his tale, Gartus quickly grabbed another squirrel and threw himself into the task, avoiding eye contact with either Steve or Lucien.

"You don't really talk about your life." Lucien observed, looking at Gartus. "I mean, we barely know anything about you; just that you were the commander of Caesar's fifth legion."

"I don't like to talk about it." Gartus replied, still not looking at the others. "I just try not to think about everything I've lost." The trio lapsed into silence again as Lucien and Gartus continued to skin the squirrels.

After the animals had been prepared, Steve and the others headed back to the camp. As they walked into the clearing where the New Arc team had spent the night, Steve could see Danny waking up the rest of the team. Taylor was sitting on her own a small distance away from the others. Steve knew what he had to do and began walking towards her. He sat down next to her. They both stayed silent for a few moments.

"You were good for him, you know." Steve said after a moment of silence had passed. "I just wanted you to know that. He became a lot stronger because of you." Taylor didn't say anything. Steve got up to leave, intent on helping Lucien make a stew out of the squirrels. Taylor caught his arm.

"Steve…thanks." She said quietly. Steve gave her a small grin.

"It's no problem." He replied. Taylor got to her feet and the pair walked over to the rest of the group.

As they reached the others, a loud beeping noise began sounding from Steve's jacket, which Emily was still wearing. Danny looked at the others in shock.

"Who's still got a phone?" He asked frantically, a wild look in his eyes. "I said to ditch the phones."

"We did," Steve replied, reaching into the jacket pocket. He pulled out the anomaly detector, which was beeping loudly. Steve looked at the others in shock.

"There's an anomaly in the woods."

XXXXX

Gartus ran as fast as he could, staying right behind Steve, who was following the directions on the detector. As he ran, he patted his sword through his coat; he wanted to be prepared for whatever would come out of the anomaly. The rest of the New Arc team trailed behind them, each worrying about what would come out.

After another few minutes of running, Gartus stopped in front of the anomaly. Steve stood next to him and pulled out the pistol he'd taken from the man in the parking garage. Gartus slowly moved to cover another angle of the anomaly, drawing his sword as he went. As the rest of the team reached the site, they all moved into their standard anomaly covering positions. Gartus couldn't help but notice the gap in between Taylor and Steve where Darren would have stood.

They watched the anomaly in silence for a few minutes. Suddenly, the surface began to ripple, meaning something was about to emerge from the anomaly. Gartus tightened his grip on his sword, ready for anything.

Almost anything. What he wasn't prepared for was a Roman centurion to emerge from the anomaly, sword held out, and look around at the others in surprise. When the man made eye contact with Gartus, both men's jaws fell open.

"T-Tiberius?" Gartus said in shock, lowering his sword to his side. The man dropped his sword completely.

"Gartus, it really is you." Tiberius responded in Latin. Both men walked forward and embraced each other, hugging tightly.

"Hold on," Steve said, watching the two men in confusion. "Gartus, do you know this guy?" Gartus grinned, almost manic at the sight of a familiar face.

"This man," He said, gesturing to his friend. "Is Tiberius Stratus, my second in command and closest friend." The realization of Tiberius' appearance suddenly hit Gartus.

"Now you're trapped as well." He said glumly. Tiberius frowned.

"No I'm not." He said, looking back at the anomaly. "We can just go right back through the light ball." Gartus looked at his friend in surprise, his eyes widening.

"That leads back to Rome?" He asked in shock. He almost couldn't believe his fortune.

"Of course," Tiberius responded, "How else would I have gotten here?"

"The one I went through took me to a forest filled with killing creatures." Gartus informed his friend. Tiberius' brows furrowed.

"I've been to some of those places." He said. Once again, Gartus was taken by surprise.

"You've gone through the anomalies before?" He asked. The rest of the New ARC team looked surprised as well. Tiberius shrugged.

"If the light ball is called an anomaly, then yes, of course I have. You disappeared through one right in front of my eyes, and then it closed right behind you. I've gone through every one I can find searching for you. And now that I've finally found you, I can take you back home." Tiberius grinned, clearly elated at the news. But Gartus was worried about his homecoming.

"What about Phillipa?" He asked with concern. "She'll have had to remarry, I'm sure. It would have been the only way to support herself and Titus." Tiberius' grin grew wider.

"She would have had to get married, you're right." He said, barely concealing his excitement about whatever announcement he was going to make. "Unless, she was still receiving your pay as a centurion." Gartus frowned, not comprehending what his friend was telling him.

"Buy she wouldn't." He replied slowly, "I would have been announced dead."

"Except," Tiberius said, still smiling, "that myself and eight other men saw you pass through the light ball, meaning that you were still alive. And seeing as the new commander of the fifth legion is such a close personal friend of your wife, he made sure she still received your pay. She's been waiting for you for four months, my friend. And now I'm bringing you back home." Gartus looked at his friends in shock. He'd stopped believing he could even go back to his own time, let alone that he could still be with his wife and son.

"Go on, then." Danny said, breaking the silence. "Get through there before it closes." Gartus looked at the faces of his teammates. They all seemed encouraging, but something was still bothering him.

"I can't just leave you in this mess." Gartus told them.

"Gartus," Emily began, "you have a wife and son waiting for you on the other side of that anomaly. If you don't go now, I'll kill you myself."

"Yeah," Steve agreed. "We'll be fine, don't worry about us. Just go." Gartus nodded as Tiberius walked over to the anomaly and stood, waiting.

"Thank you all," Gartus said, trying to keep the tears out of his vision. "for everything. I'll never forget these times." He gave the New ARC one last look before walking through the anomaly, Tiberius following behind him.

As he emerged into the sunlight, Gartus' first sight of Rome was a country field. His second sight was the six centurions surrounding the anomaly with spears leveled and pointing at him. Tiberius walked out behind him, waving the guards down. Gartus looked around in surprise.

"How many people know about the anomalies?" He asked Tiberius.

"There's just a few of us." Tiberius replied. "No one believed me about the anomalies at first, but then a creature came through one and rampaged through a country village. After that, the emperor was much more willing to listen. He wants to see you, by the way." Gartus' eyes widened, he'd only met the emperor once, and that was to receive his commission as commander.

"I want to see Phillipa first." Gartus insisted. Tiberius shook his head.

"As intimidating as your wife is, the emperor still ranks higher." He responded, motioning over one of the centurions guarding the anomaly.

"Bartiartus, I need you to go to the Iorta household. Get Phillipa and tell her the chicken has come home to roost. Tell her we're heading to the palace and to meet us on the way." As the young soldier ran off, Gartus looked at Tiberius in disbelief.

"'The chicken has come home to roost'" He repeated in a slightly mocking tone. Tiberius grinned.

"Couldn't help it." He replied. "I thought it was quite clever." Gartus snorted.

"You would." He said, grinning as well. The two friends headed off down the road into Rome.

XXXXX

Steve stood watching the Rome anomaly with the others after Gartus went through it. However, five minutes afterwards, a thought occurred to him.

"Do we really need to guard this one?" He asked aloud. Ben gave him a quizzical look.

"What do you mean?" He asked. The others looked curious as well.

"All I'm saying is, if the Romans have people going through these anomalies all the time, then they've got to be Rome's worst kept secret. Like the powers in _Misfits_." Everyone gave Steve a thoroughly confused look at his point. He sighed.

"In _Misfits_, like half the town has a superpower, everyone knows about them, but it's never made public news. When you tell someone you have a superpower, there's no surprise or disbelief. Everyone knows, like the anomalies in Rome."

"But they did go public with their powers." Lucien interjected suddenly. "I saw that episode. There was the crazy milk guy killing everyone." Steve looked away from the anomaly and stared at Lucien. He would have been less surprised if Danny had made the reference. Lucien looked around at everyone's surprised faces.

"What?" He asked defensively. "I can enjoy a good sci fi show if I want." Steve shook his head, clearing his moment of shock.

"Curtis erased that timeline, remember?" He told Lucien. "They stopped the milk guy from going public." Lucien nodded, but Danny cut off his response.

"What is the point you're getting at here?" He asked Steve.

"I'm just saying, it seems like the Romans have this under control, so no one's coming in from that side. And we're in the middle of the woods, off the beaten track, so no one's coming in from here. We could probably just leave this anomaly." Ben shrugged.

"So, back to camp, then?" Ben asked the group. The others nodded and they began walking back.

Suddenly, Emily gasped and stopped dead, grabbing Steve's arm.

"An anomaly is open." She said in a terrified whisper. Steve frowned and looked at her in confusion.

"We know that." He said slowly, "Are you okay, Em?" She shook her head quickly.

"You don't understand." She said hurriedly. "Those men have a detector, and we've had an anomaly open for the past twenty minutes." Steve's eyes widened as he realized what she was saying.

"Back to camp, now!" Danny roared. Steve and the rest of the New ARC took off after him.

XXXXX

Gartus had just finished telling the emperor the condensed version of his travels over the past four months. His wife stood next to him, holding his hand, while Tiberius stood on his other side. As they waited for the emperor to make an announcement or a judgment, Gartus suddenly had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He stiffened and looked around cautiously. Something told him the danger wasn't in Rome, but with his friends in the future. The emperor noticed Gartus' uncomfortable expression.

"Is something bothering you, Commander Iorta?" He asked imperiously.

"It's nothing, Caesar." Gartus replied hurriedly, "Just a bad feeling." Tiberius looked at Gartus in surprise and shock.

"_A_ bad feeling?" He asked. "Like before?" The emperor frowned.

"What do you mean, Tiberius?" The emperor asked. "What kind of bad feeling is this?"

"A few years ago," Tiberius began. "Commander Iorta had a bad feeling while we were on patrol in Britania. He sent myself and half the legion on a parallel route through the woods we needed to pass through. The men with Commander Iorta were ambushed by the Picts. My men were able to come to the rescue and help fight them off. If it hadn't been for the commander's bad feeling, the legion would have been almost decimated." The emperor shook his head slowly, deciding whether or not to believe him.

"Do you think there's danger here?" He asked Gartus. Gartus shook his head.

"No, my lord. I think it has to do with the people I met in the future. I think they're in danger." The emperor nodded again.

"What do you need?" He asked. Gartus was surprised at the man's willingness to help people he'd never met, but decided not to question it. Gartus closed his eyes and let his mind wander. He'd found in the past that he needed to let instinct guide him when he made decisions based on his 'bad feelings'. Suddenly, the solution came to him and his eyes shot open.

"I know what we need to do." He told the others.

XXXXX

Steve kneeled on the ground, hands cuffed behind his back, in a line with the rest of his friends. When they'd returned to camp, they'd found it already occupied by at least twenty men in black jumpsuits. They hadn't stood a chance. So now, Steve was kneeling on the ground, looking dead into the barrel of the Captain's pistol. The man leered at him.

"Not so tough now, are we?" He asked. Steve shrugged and allowed himself a small smile at the black eye that was beginning to form on the man's face.

"At least I gave you something to remember me by." He replied. Surprisingly, the captain put his pistol in his holster and walked down the line, stopping by Danny.

"The infamous Danny Quinn." The man taunted. "It might interest you to know that the Temples got away. We just barely missed them, thanks to your tip off." Danny's lip curled in anger. Steve knew the captain was trying to provoke Danny, make him mad enough to try and attack.

"You gonna shoot us, or talk us to death?" Steve asked, trying to bring the attention away from Danny. The captain shrugged.

"Very well then." He said casually. With a small hand signal, the captain ordered one of his men forward. The man walked up to Steve and leveled his rifle. Surprisingly, he then moved it to point at Emily. Steve froze in fear and his eyes widened.

"I think I'll shoot you last." The captain informed Steve. "It'll be more fun that way. Travers, kill her." Travers nodded and looked down at Emily. Steve couldn't force his body to do anything.

Suddenly, a scream of pain filled the air. Steve looked up in shock to see Travers screaming and staggering backwards, clutching what looked like an arrow protruding from his neck. A hail of arrows filled the air, hitting the men anywhere they weren't protected. Steve pushed himself into Emily, knocking her to the ground and trying to keep her out of an arrow's path.

Steve saw Danny throw himself onto his back and kick the captain in the knees, bringing him down. In a blur of movement, two figures in centurion dress flew into the clearing, swinging swords into the remaining soldiers. Steve looked in shock as Gartus, dressed back in his centurion garb, cut through men left and right, Tiberius at his side.

And as quickly as it began, it was over. Gartus and Tiberius stood in the middle of the clearing, surrounded by the bodies of the dead men. Archers, also in Roman clothes, began emerging from the trees, slinging their bows back over their shoulders. Steve and the rest of the team struggled to their feet, looking at Gartus in shock. He gave them a grim smile.

"What are you doing here?" Ben asked, walking forward, hands still behind his back.

"Not that we're complaining." Steve added, with a grin.

"I had a bad feeling." Gartus replied. "Figured you might need some assistance."

"Thank you." Emily said earnestly. Steve knew she needed some form of comfort, but his options were limited with his hands cuffed behind him. He settled for leaning in against her and giving her a reassuring smile. She returned it.

"Yes, we're very glad you're here." Danny said walking up. "It feels like you never left. Now could you please get these off?" He gestured at the handcuffs behind his back.

After Gartus and his men cut off the handcuffs, the New ARC prepared to see the Romans back to their own time. Steve picked up one of the dead men's pistols, to be safe. As they got closer to the still opened anomaly, Gartus stopped and looked at the others.

"Good luck." He told them. "Don't expect another rescue." Ben grinned and extended his hand.

"I hope we won't need another one." He said. The two men shook hands and Gartus led the Romans back through the anomaly. Steve and the rest of the New ARC watched as it closed behind the last centurion. They stayed silent for a moment.

"I don't know about all of you," Steve began, "but I'm pretty hungry right now."

"Being held at gunpoint will do that to you." Lucien said with a small smile. Steve took Emily's hand as they all turned around to head back to their camp.

They stopped dead. Facing them was the captain, holding his rifle and staring at the New ARC with a look of total hatred and slight insanity.

"No monologues this time." The man said, "This time, I'm going to kill all of you, right here, right now." As he brought the gun to his shoulder, something snapped inside of Steve.

He'd been keeping the pain of Darren's death buried, trying to act normal for the sake of everyone else. But seeing this man point a gun at his friends again took Steve somewhere he'd never been before.

Letting go of Emily's hand, Steve darted to the right, pulling the pistol out of his waistband as he moved. Before the man could react, Steve shot him in the knee.

The captain screamed in pain, dropping the rifle and clutching his knee, leaning against a tree for support. Steve rushed forward and slammed the butt of the pistol into the man's head, knocking him unconscious. Steve pointed his pistol at the man's head.

"Steve, don't." Danny instructed firmly. Steve looked at Danny questioningly. "We're taking him back to the camp." Danny continued. "I've got questions that I need him alive for."

XXXXX

Gartus kneeled in front of the emperor for the second time that day and waited for the man to speak.

"You've done good works for me, Gartus." The emperor said after a moment of silence.

"Thank you, my lord." Gartus replied.

"But Tiberius is already in command of the fifth legion." The emperor continued. "I can't take that away from him." Gartus nodded.

"I understand, my lord." He said, still looking down.

"But there is a job I do need you for." The emperor said. Gartus looked up in surprise.

"What job is that?" He asked with curiosity.

"These 'anomalies', as you call them, have been appearing all over the country for months." The emperor informed him. "Dreadful creatures come out of them, attack my people and eat our livestock. I'm looking for a man to head up a team of people who will control the creatures that come out of these anomalies. Can I count on you, Gartus Iorta?" Gartus grinned.

"Yes, my lord." He replied. "I have just the name for this group."

XXXXX

Patrick Quinn emerged from an anomaly into the bright sunlight with one purpose in mind. He needed to find Danny, and he needed to reconcile with his brother. The years alone in the past, with nothing but nature and dinosaurs for company had been therapeutic for Patrick. And now he wanted to find Danny and make peace.

But unfortunately, the four men standing in front of the anomaly holding assault rifles seemed to have a different plan for him.

"Freeze!" One of the men instructed, bringing his rifle to his shoulder. "Identify yourself."

Patrick frowned. The ARC used those little Taser guns, so either they'd gone for human safety over creature safety, or these men weren't part of the ARC. They definitely didn't recognize him, which was another strike against them being with the ARC. Patrick figured everyone working at the ARC would be on the lookout for him to come back, just in case.

So these men were not with the ARC, but they knew about anomalies. And they seemed ready to kill anyone who got in their way. Patrick knew what he was going to have to do.

"I said, identify yourself." The man repeated. Ethan gave him a mocking smile.

"Elvis Presley." He replied casually. "I've been living in the past for a while. Dinosaurs sure do love _Heartbreak Hotel_."

"Okay, wiseguy." The man said threateningly, walking forward. "You're coming with us for questioning." Ethan shook his head inwardly as the man lowered his rifle and pulled out a set of handcuffs. These men really had no idea how dangerous he was.

As the man got closer, Ethan jumped forward. He darted behind the man, grabbing the rifle hanging loosely from his shoulder. Still behind the first man, Ethan sprayed the other three men with the rifle. They all fell before they had the chance to react. Ethan pushed the man forward, snatching his pistol as he did so. The man turned around quickly and saw the barrel of his own pistol in between his eyes. Ethan pulled the trigger.

As the man's body fell to the ground, Ethan surveyed his surroundings. He was standing on the middle of a forest trail. Grabbing the weapons of the fallen men, Ethan began walking down the path, away from the anomaly.

Farther down the trail, Ethan could see a large black van. Judging by the man in a black outfit matching those he'd left further down the trail, Ethan assumed that the van belonged to whoever was sending these men after anomalies. And whoever was targeting anomalies was probably targeting those who worked with them, which meant Danny. Ethan needed that van.

Leaving the rifles behind the base of a tree, but keeping the pistol in his waistband, Ethan ran up to the driver's side of the van with a frantic expression in his eyes.

"Please, you've got to help." He shouted at the man in the van. The man turned and looked at him in surprise.

"There are people hurt on the trail." Ethan said, gesturing back down the path. "It looks like some type of animal attack. You've got to help them." The man got out of the van and stepped towards Ethan.

"Where are they?" He asked. Ethan moved towards the man, still gesturing down the path.

"They're down there, just follow the path. I think some might be dead." Ethan told him, still keeping the frantic tone is his voice. As soon as the young man rushed past him, Ethan pulled his gun from his jeans. He fired one round into the man's skull. Ethan turned around before the man hit the ground.

He got into the van and checked the SatNav. One location was marked as base. Whatever was going on, base was where he needed to go. Patrick Quinn tossed the pistol onto the passenger's seat and began to drive away. He was going to find Danny, no matter what.

**AN:** As a quick word of explanation: in my mind, Patrick has a split personality, Jekyll and Hyde thing going on. When he's a calm, rational man seeking reconciliation, he's Patrick Quinn. But when it's time to kill people, he's Ethan Doblonski. The other characters will just refer to him as Patrick, but when he's referring to himself as Ethan, that's when people die.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** OK, firstly, I want to apologize for the massive delay and for the bad news. The bad news is that I've lost the spark for this story, everything I write for it looks like crap. Pro tip: if you're the kind of writer that gets really attached to one show and writes about it because of that attachment, don't watch another show. So, I'm putting up what I have done now with the promise that I will finish this last chapter; it just might take a while. If you'd rather I put it up in outline form, I can do that, just let me know. Again, I'm so sorry for leaving it like this; I just can't write anything else for Primeval right now. Thank you to those who've read everything so far, I really appreciate it.

**Chapter 8**

Ben stood back with the other members of the New ARC team and watched Steve warily as he paced back and forth in front of the still unconscious captain. As the man began to stir, Ben kept his eye on the pistol in Steve's hand.

Steve, who'd seemed to be getting better, looked completely insane by this point. He was still pacing in front of the captain and kept looking at the gun in his hand, as if debating whether or not he'd use it. The captain groaned and looked around blearily. Steve walked forward and crouched down to the level of the man tied against the tree.

"The only reason you're still alive is because we need information." Steve told the man calmly. "Otherwise, I'd have killed you on the path. So if you want to live long enough to go home again, you'd better start talking." The man sneered at Steve.

"I'm a trained professional, kid." He scoffed. "It'll take more than you having a hissy fit to break me." Steve seemed undaunted.

"Who do you work for?" He asked. The captain laughed.

"The Dark Lord of the Sith." He replied tauntingly. "Darth Vader gave me this-" Without warning, Steve pistol whipped the captain, cutting him off mid-sentence.

"Last chance." Steve warned. "My best friend is dead because of whoever you work for. I will kill you if you don't start telling me what I want to hear."

"You're gonna have to kill me." The captain said defiantly. Steve shrugged and pointed his pistol at the captured man.

As Ben jumped forward, trying to stop his teammate, Steve pulled the trigger. Ben stared in shock at the captain who, instead of slumping forward in death, jumped and flinched away. Ben could see now that Steve had moved his pistol at the last instant. Steve leaned down and put the still warm barrel under the man's chin.

"You know where the next one will go." He said in a low, gravelly, tone. "Now, are you gonna talk, or am I wasting my time?" The captain looked noticeably paler and shaken.

"Wha- what do you want to know?" He asked shakily. Steve stood up and handed the gun to Danny.

"He's all yours." Steve said, walking past the others. Ben motioned for Emily to go after him and stood next to Danny. Danny kneeled down to the captain's level.

"We'll start from the top." Danny said. "What's your name and who do you work for?" The captain still looked shaken, but seemed to compose himself.

"M-my name is Captain Tom Reynolds." The man stammered. "And I'm, I'm a British soldier."

"You're a what?" Lucien asked angrily, stepping forward. "I'm a British soldier and I don't hunt down people who haven't done anything wrong. I don't kill innocent people in their homes." By the end of his question Lucien's voice had raised to a yell and his face was inches away from the captain. The man, who'd been cocky and brave before, cowered away from Lucien.

"I-I was transferred to a secret agency as security." Reynolds told them hastily. "This group works with anomalies. B-but I think they do it under the radar, whenever the director has meetings with the Prime Minister, they're never discussed. I think the Minister believes we're researching renewable energy."

"And you're researching anomalies instead?" Danny asked.

"It's gotta be bigger than that." Steve reasoned, rejoining the group. "They wouldn't need all the cloak and dagger if they were just researching anomalies. So what do you do at this agency, captain?" Ben glanced at Steve, but he seemed to be calm and in control again.

"There's a generator, at the base." Reynolds said. He looked down. Ben was still confused and looked at the others.

"What kind of generator?" He asked the captain.

"An anomaly generator." Emily said quietly, "They're creating the anomalies." Captain Reynolds nodded.

"The generator creates the disturbance needed for anomalies to appear. But the agency didn't know it worked for months. That's how your group went undetected for so long." Danny nodded.

"So we need to get to your headquarters and destroy that generator." He said in a strangely upbeat tone.

"You sound pretty happy about storming a building full of armed soldiers and trying to disable a machine we know nothing about." Lucien pointed out. Danny shrugged.

"When I was with the ARC, we didn't even know we could stop the anomalies. Now you're telling me all I have to do is break a generator. It's easy stuff."

"There's something else." Reynolds added, looking concerned. "The agency has taken prisoners." Danny's eyes widened.

"Who?" He demanded. "Who do they have?"

"James Lester, Major Becker, and Jess Becker." The captain replied quietly. Danny stood up and walked away from the tree. The others followed behind him.

"What're you thinking?" Ben asked Danny as the group huddled away from Reynolds.

"We've got to get the ARC members out and we've got to destroy that generator." Danny stated.

"Well, obviously," Taylor replied, "But how? We don't have a plan; we don't even know where the generator is."

"Reynolds will tell us." Ben said, "And we could take the vehicles he used to get here."

"There are plenty of firearms around here." Lucien noted. "We wouldn't be short on ammunition." Emily looked terrified.

"Hold on," She said frantically. "You're talking about storming a highly guarded facility, killing our way through, mounting a rescue mission, and disabling an anomaly generator with no knowledge of how it works." She looked around at the others in fear. Steve shrugged.

"When you put it like that, it sounds much easier." He replied nonchalantly.

"It's insane." She said angrily, "We'll all be killed."

"You don't have to go." Danny said gently. "No one will fault you for wanting to leave; or anyone for that matter. I'm going, and anyone else is welcome to join me." He looked around at the others

"I'm in." Steve replied immediately.

"And me." Lucien added. Ben sighed.

"I'm coming too." He said resolutely. They looked at the two women.

"I'm not walking away from this." Taylor stated firmly.

"You're not all going in without me." Emily said finally. "If you all go in and I don't, I'll never be able to live with myself. I just want to make sure I go on record as saying that this is insane."

"Noted." Danny said with a small grin. "Now, let's go ask the Captain where the party is."


	9. Chapter 8 12

**AN:** The motivation to finish this story came to me in a dream. I was sleeping soundly, when suddenly the skies seemed to open up and my muses descended like angels from on high. And they said to me, "Finish Next Gen or we will beat you to death with a bag of trout." And they left. I was actually kind of offended, I feel like I deserve halibut, at the very least. So here it is, the final installment of Primeval: Next Generation, because no one wants to be beaten to death by trout, that's just embarrassing.

**Chapter 8 ½**

As Danny drove the stolen van closer to the guard box outside of the government research facility, he looked over his team. In the passenger seat, Steve sat with a look of complete calm and confidence. The others didn't look as optimistic.

They were all dressed in the black jumpsuits worn by the military members of the facility. Taylor and Ben both looked scared, but ready. Emily just looked sick. Danny and Lucien exchanged a brief look, the kind only shared by two men who'd been into battle before and knew they were going back again. Lucien nodded grimly and Danny stopped in front of the booth.

Danny rolled down his window and held out the id card he'd taken from Reynolds. The man in the booth took the card, but paused before swiping it.

"Weren't there supposed to two vans?" He asked suspiciously.

"They're getting gas." Danny replied calmly. The man in the booth frowned.

"We fill the vans here. They shouldn't even need gas." He said slowly. Danny fought to keep a straight face as the man slowly reached for the phone. Suddenly, Steve sighed loudly.

"Fine." He said in a tone of exasperation. "You caught us. The other van made a McDonald's run." The booth man's face lost its tension.

"Samuelson!" He exclaimed loudly. "I told that bastard to let me know the next time he was going to do that. You call that son of a whore and tell him I want a large number four, no onions, and a Diet Coke." Steve smiled and gave the man a mock salute.

"Will do, boss." He told the booth man. The booth man swiped Danny's card and the gate lifted. Danny took his card back and drove on through to the parking garage.

As they drove past the booth, Danny looked at Steve in admiration.

"Your ability to lie both impresses and worries me, my friend." He said with a grin. Steve smiled as well.

"My mom hated it." He told them. "She knew I could lie to her face and she could never tell. It's just a gift."

Danny parked the van and looked back at the rest of the New ARC.

"Alright," He began, "so the plan is: we get in, we get the Beckers and Lester, we destroy the generator, and we get out. No problem."

"We need to get to a computer, or at least I do." Steve added. "That way I can find the Beckers and Lester, and the generator." Danny nodded.

"Right, so we just get out of the van and walk right in." He told the team. "Act like we belong and we'll be fine."

"Stay behind me and Danny when the shooting starts." Lucien added gravely.

"Don't you mean **if** the shooting starts?" Emily asked pointedly. Lucien looked at her and she sighed. "You're right, wishful thinking."

"Good luck everyone." Ben said, looking around. "Let's go do this." He grabbed the door handle and pulled it open, exiting the van. Danny and the others followed suit.

The six of them walked calmly into the building and looked around. They'd entered into a lobby, with a large reception desk thirty feet in front of them. Danny took the lead and walked up to the desk with a large smile on his face.

"Hi," He said jovially to the receptionist sitting behind the counter. "We're new here and we were instructed to take some computer stuff to the tech labs. Could you tell me which way that is?" Danny kept smiling as the receptionist looked at him with a disinterested expression. Finally, she sighed loudly and pointed down the hall.

"Go down that hallway, take the second right and follow that hallway to the end, and then go left. The tech lab is room 442." Danny smiled at her.

"Thank you very much." He said politely. He walked away from the desk and motioned for the others to follow.

As they walked down the hallway, Danny peered through each window and open door as he passed. All he could see were people working at desks or at computers. He looked at Steve walking next to him.

"Are you sure you can hack into their system?" He asked quietly. Steve grinned.

"Positive." He answered confidently. "I can get into any system made by man."

"You couldn't break into the ARC's." Danny pointed out. Steve visibly deflated.

"I said man, not techno-god. Connor Temple built the ARC system from the ground up. It would've taken me weeks to crack it. And when Jess Parker beefed it up, it became impossible. Even I have limits." Danny grinned.

"Let's not find out if this system is one of them." He said. Steve nodded and stopped outside of the lab's door. Ben peered through the glass on the door.

"I see eight people working in there." He reported. He looked at Danny. "What's the plan?" Danny took a deep breath.

"We hold them up." He responded, unholstering his pistol. Lucien grinned and clicked the safety off of his rifle.

"Shiny." He said with a grin. "Let's go be bad guys." Lucien kicked open the door and walked in with his rifle raised. Danny and the others followed, holding out their own guns.

"Put your hands in the air and get on the ground." Danny barked. The frightened scientists immediately dove for the ground and put their hands on their heads. Steve rushed over to one of the computer terminals and began typing rapidly at the keyboard.

Danny corralled the scientists into one corner of the room and left Ben and Taylor to guard them. Emily and Lucien stood next to Steve while Danny checked the hallways outside.

"I'm in." Steve announced suddenly. Danny looked at Steve as his hands flew over the keyboard. "It looks like the old ARC is being held on the second floor."

"Right, second floor then." Danny said confidently. He began moving towards the door, but Steve didn't move.

"Wait," Steve said in a distracted tone of voice. "There's something else. It's weird, some of these cells have been outfitted with enough layers of steel to keep Wolverine in place."

"That doesn't make any sense." Ben interjected. "Nothing could keep Wolverine in place, he'd just teleport out." Steve looked at him in shock and amusement.

"Wolverine can't teleport." He said slowly. "Wolverine has the claws coming out of his hands." Ben frowned.

"Then which one can teleport?" He asked in confusion.

"You're probably thinking of Night Crawler." Lucien added. Now Steve looked at Lucien in amazement.

"Who are you?" He asked incredulously. "I've known you for months and I didn't even think you knew what sci-fi was. Now you're quoting the Big Damn Movie and educating Ben on the X-Men. What happened, man?"

"I like sci-fi." Lucien answered plainly. "I've just never mentioned it before." Danny cut Steve off as he opened his mouth.

"We did come here for a reason." He interjected. "Remember, save the prisoners, save the world."

"Or is it the cheerleader?" Lucien muttered to Steve. Steve snorted, but Danny shot them both a glare. Steve dropped his grin and stood up.

"I think I have an idea for a diversion." He volunteered. "I can't shut off the alarms, not from here, but I can cause a problem that'll keep everyone busy."

"You have a plan?" Emily asked. Steve shrugged.

"Well, half a plan." He replied with a cheeky grin. "Well, half a plan and a bad idea… A really bad idea."

"Want help?" Lucien asked as Steve walked towards the door. Steve looked at him in surprise.

"Could be dangerous." He warned him.

"Gee, I've never been shot at before." Lucien replied sarcastically. Steve nodded.

"Come on then, I'll fill you in on the way." Steve looked at Danny. "The generator is on basement two. Apparently, it's the only thing in basement two. Once you get the Beckers and Lester, we'll meet you there." Danny nodded and held out his hand. Steve shook it, and then Lucien did the same.

"Good luck." Danny said. "We'll see you at the generator." Steve nodded and the two men ran out of the room.

XXXXX

"Raptors?" Lucien asked Steve in shock. "Your plan is 'raptors'?" Steve nodded confidently.

"That third floor cell was pumped up way too much to hold a person. They wouldn't need a quarter of that much steel. Unless, what they were locking up has six inch claws and an angry disposition."

"But how do you know there are raptors in there?" Lucien asked as they walked up the stairs. "Or anything, for that matter. It could just be an empty cell."

"The anomaly at the movie theater." Steve explained. "We know these people go to anomaly sites, maybe they're supposed to kidnap dinosaurs while they're there."

"I just hope you're right." Lucien said as he pushed open the door to the third floor.

The pair stopped dead as they encountered four armed security guards blocking their path. The six men stared at each other for a quiet moment. Finally, one of the four men spoke up.

"You just gonna block the stairs all day?" He asked testily. Lucien and Steve both shook themselves out of their stupor.

"No sir, sorry sir." Lucien said quickly, dragging Steve out of the way. The man prepared to walk past, but stopped suddenly and looked at Lucien.

"I don't recognize you." He said suspiciously. "What unit are you in? Show me your identification cards." He held out his hand expectantly.

Lucien decided not to wait for Steve to come up with an answer, he launched into action himself. Without warning, he grabbed the man's wrist and twisted it outwards. He followed with a quick punch to the man's elbow. Lucien could hear the bone's crack. In the same move, Lucien rammed his own elbow into the man's nose, sending his head jerking back. Lucien grabbed the man by the shoulder and hurled him into the second guard.

Even though his attack had been quick and unexpected, the third and fourth guards were already advancing towards Lucien. Lucien lashed out rapidly, using his hands, feet, elbows, and knees as weapons. Soon, the second man had gotten up, giving Lucien three opponents. He continually countered their attacks while responding with his own.

Eventually, Lucien was able to dispatch one of the guards by taking out his legs with a sweep. He then grabbed the second man by the shoulders and rammed his knee into his gut. As both men dropped to the ground, Lucien turned to see the final guard facing him with his pistol leveled at Lucien.

Suddenly, Lucien heard a gunshot and a scream. He saw the guard drop to the ground, clutching his knee, which was bleeding everywhere. Lucien looked in shock at Steve, who was holding his pistol straight out with a slightly surprised look on his face. Lucien kicked the man in the head and turned to Steve.

"Thanks." He said calmly, walking past the shorter man towards the reinforced cell at the end of the hallway. Steve looked at Lucien in shock as they walked.

"What did you do in the Army?" He asked with a tone of amazement. Lucien grinned.

"Classified." He responded. Steve opened his mouth to say something, but he was cut off by a blaring klaxon alarm that was sounding all over the building. They both looked back at the guard Steve had shot. He was holding a radio. He also had his gun pointed at the pair of them.

"Run!" Lucien shouted quickly. He leveled his rifle and fired at the sitting guard. The man slumped forward, his pistol dropping out of his hand.

Unfortunately, reinforcement guards had arrived from the stairwell. The three men fired down the hallway at Lucien and Steve. Lucien returned fire and turned to run. Steve was already halfway down the hallway. Lucien took off after him, occasionally firing behind his shoulder.

Steve rounded the corner as Lucien was three quarters of the way down. Suddenly, more gunshots filled the air. Lucien heard several shots that whizzed past him. And one that didn't.

Lucien stumbled with a grunt of pain as he felt the round in his lower back. Steve began returning fire from around the corner. He hadn't noticed Lucien yet. As Lucien tried to get back on his feet, he felt another round pierce his back, higher than the first. Everything was beginning to get fuzzier, he could hear Steve yelling something, but he couldn't make it out.

Oddly, the door at the end of the hallway filled Lucien's vision. The voice of his Captain telling him to do his duty filled his ears. Lucien used the last of his strength to bring his assault rifle to his shoulder. He aimed at the door and unloaded the entire magazine. As he dropped his rifle, Lucien felt another round pierce his shoulder, but he barely felt it. His entire body began to go numb and he dropped forward onto his chest. The very last thing Lucien could see was the cage door swinging open and four very large raptors walking out. Then the world faded to black.

XXXXX

Steve saw Lucien fall and in his mind he was watching Darren die all over again. Steve's entire mind filled with rage. He was going to make sure that no one else on their team died and that Darren's and Lucien's sacrifices weren't for nothing.

Steve rolled around the corner and fired wildly at the guards, keeping them behind their cover. That allowed the raptors to rush forward, giving out loud cries of hunger. They rushed straight past Lucien's body and charged the guards, who turned and ran, the raptors close behind.

Steve walked calmly out into the hallway and knelt next to Lucien's still body. He placed a hand over his friend's glassy eyes and closed the lids. Steve stood up and began walking towards the elevator. It was time to end this.

XXXXX

Danny marched down the hallways, looking for the room number of the office that had recently been converted into a cell. Behind him, Ben, Taylor, and Emily were fanned out and continually checking over their shoulders for any activity. Danny grinned as he found the correct office door. He signaled the others over.

"Is this it?" Ben asked, still looking around the hallway. Danny nodded.

"Do we have keys?" Emily asked curiously.

"Not exactly." Danny replied with a grin as he shot the doorknob. The others jumped slightly.

"Ben, Taylor, you two keep watch on the North stairwell." Danny instructed. "Emily, you're on the South." The three nodded and moved quickly to the end of the hallway. Danny pushed open the door hesitantly, expecting the worse.

He was greeted by the sight of Becker, Jess, and Lester shackled to the far wall. Lester and Jess seemed to be unharmed, but Becker was sprouting a fresh black eye and a busted lip. Becker gave a short laugh when he saw Danny.

"You never call," Becker said in a slightly mocking tone, "you never write, you never send flowers. I'm beginning to think you don't care about me."

"It's just been busy at work." Danny responded, playing along.

As Becker opened his mouth to respond, Lester cut in angrily.

"As much fun as I'm having being chained to a wall and forced to listen to your banter, I would like to go home sometime today if you can manage it, Quinn." Danny grinned at his old boss.

"Glad to see retirement has mellowed you out, Lester." Danny replied with a grin as he pulled out his lockpicking set.

"I'm a very mellow person, Quinn." Lester stated calmly. "I simply have an aversion to being a prisoner. I know, it's a character flaw."

Danny grinned as he set to work on the locks. He spared a glance at Jess, who seemed very calm for someone who'd been taken prisoner and chained to an office wall. He'd only met the former field coordinator once, but she didn't strike him as someone who would be used to being in situations like this. He saw Becker nudge her.

"You okay, Jess." He asked quietly. She nodded and looked at Danny.

"Are those boys alright?" She asked. Danny frowned, confused.

"Which boys?" He asked, looking around the room to make sure there weren't other people.

"The ones I sent the backdoor password to." Jess replied. Comprehension dawned on Danny. Who else could have given Steve and Darren access to the ARC systems. Danny stopped for a moment, debating whether or not to tell Jess about Darren.

Suddenly, an alarm sounded over the buildings intercoms. Danny whipped his head up in shock. Becker glared at him.

"Is this part of the plan?" He asked, looking worried.

"You know how I feel about plans, Becker." Danny replied, trying to keep calm. "I'm more of an improviser."

"Well then improvise the locks open." Lester said testily.

"Just give me a minute." Danny replied tersely. The locks were more sophisticated than he'd anticipated.

"Danny," Lester began slowly.

"What?" Danny replied, still fiddling with the locks.

"Do you have a brown haired boy on your team?" Lester asked. "Average height, medium build, black jumpsuit." Danny frowned.

"What do you-" Danny was cut off by the sound of a hammer being drawn back on a pistol.

Raising his hands slowly, Danny turned around to face one of the armed guards, who had a tight grip on Ben's arm with a pistol aimed at his head. Danny looked at the man and tried to assess the situation.

"You alright, Ben?" Danny asked cautiously.

"Fine," Ben replied, sounding angry at himself. "Taylor's hurt, though. Bastard shot her in the leg."

"She'll be fine." The man asserted. He pointed the gun at Danny. "You, on the other hand."

Suddenly, hands appeared on either side of the man's head. With a sudden twist and a sickening crack, the guard's neck was broken. His body fell to the floor, revealing the last person Danny expected to see.

"Hello, Danny." Patrick said calmly.

Danny stared in dumb shock. Patrick appearing out of the blue would be one thing, but Patrick rescuing him and acting very calmly about the whole thing was seriously messing with Danny's understanding of the world.

"You really need to train your people better." Patrick continued. "The girl you put on the south steps let me walk right past her."

"He said he was your brother." Emily interjected, peering her head around the corner.

"Exactly." Patrick said, still seemingly unconcerned by the effect his appearance was having. "I could have been anyone."

"Like a lunatic murderer?" Becker suggested venomously. Patrick sighed.

"I guess you're still upset about the bomb, then?" He asked casually. Danny shook his head, trying to regain control of the situation.

"Ben, go get Taylor." He instructed quickly, "Bring her back here. And you," He pointed at Patrick, "what are you doing here, Pat?"

"Redemption and forgiveness, Danny," Patrick responded honestly, looking Danny squarely in the eye. "Plain and simple, I've made some mistakes, well, a lot of mistakes. I've hurt people. A lot of people, actually. And I'm sorry, I truly am."

Danny looked at his brother in silence for a moment. Then he rushed forward and wrapped Patrick in a tight hug. Patrick awkwardly patted Danny's back.

"Maybe not ready to hug yet." Patrick said in a strained voice. Danny released his brother and grinned.

"Tough," He replied sternly, "I'm a hugger, get used to it."

"It's true," Becker vouched from the floor. "He tried to hug me once."

"You'd almost died." Danny retorted, moving back to the locks. "I was worried."

With a final click, the locks fell off of the prisoners wrists. Becker stood up and grabbed Jess in a tight hug. Lester rubbed his wrists tenderly and looked around. Danny walked over to the door to see Ben carrying Taylor over to the converted office. He set her down gently and looked at Danny.

Danny took a moment to glance over Taylor. Other than obviously being in pain, she looked like she would survive. She glared at Ben from the floor.

"If you pick me up again, I will bite you." She threatened. Ben shook his head and fixed Danny with an intense look.

"What's the plan now?" He asked. Danny looked over everyone involved. He reached his decision quickly.

"Becker, I want you to take everyone and get out." Danny instructed. "Patrick and I will meet up with Lucien and Steve at the generator."

"No way." Becker protested angrily. "I'm sticking with you, Danny."

"Me too." Ben added quickly. "This is our fight just as much as it is anyone else's." Danny looked over the faces of his friends, but he knew he was making the right choice. Thankfully, Jess took his side.

"Danny's right, Hil." She said quietly. "We can't stay here. He and Patrick can handle it." Becker looked upset, but nodded his head slowly. He clapped Danny on the shoulder.

"When this is over, you're coming to our flat for dinner." He said. Danny grinned.

"I look forward to it." He responded. He turned to face Ben glaring at him angrily.

"I'm not leaving." He stated stubbornly. Danny sighed.

"Ben, you've got to go." Danny repeated firmly. "You've got to get out and take care of your people. We can handle this; you need to take care of Taylor."

"I'm fine, actually." Taylor interjected suddenly. Danny watched her as she laboriously tried to stand up, using the wall to support her weight. Ben frowned and gave an angry sigh.

"Good luck." He said simply, holding out his hand. Danny shook it and patted Ben on the arm.

Ben walked over to Taylor, who was struggling to walk down the hallway with an injured leg. She saw Ben and held her hands up in defense.

"Don't you do it." She warned. Ben simply bent down low and grabbed Taylor around the thighs, lifting her up onto his shoulder.

"I'll get you for this." She said sullenly. She gave Danny a pointed look.

"You'd better come back." She told him. He smiled at her.

"I plan to." He replied.

Ben walked off down the hallway, following Becker and the rest of the team. Danny turned to Patrick and grinned.

"Let's go break something expensive."

XXXXX

There are bad plans, there are worse plans, and then there are Danny Quinn plans. One of Patrick's earliest memories of being with Danny involved an infamous Danny Quinn plan. Patrick couldn't remember much of that day, but he did remember learning that badgers do not like to be provoked. And as with most of the following Danny Quinn plans, that day ended with the pair of brothers running wildly while being chased by something or someone they'd pissed off.

The only difference was today, they were being chased by armed guards. Angry, armed guards.

"Why did you think this was a good idea?" Patrick yelled to Danny over the noise of gunfire. Danny shot him a Quinn smile.

"You said we needed to keep the guards busy so the others could get out." He replied before returning fire down the hallway. Patrick sighed.

"No," He corrected, "I said, 'let's use sneak attacks to draw their fire'. And then you went charging in there like Han bloody Solo."

Patrick reloaded his pistol and rolled around the corner, crossing the hallway as he fired at the guards. Despite his complaints, he really did love a good firefight. Something about trading bullets spoke to the lunatic murderer in him.

He reached the other side of the hallway where Danny was standing and the two men exchanged reckless grins. As they prepared to fire back down the hallway, screams of terror and loud screeches filled the air.

Patrick and Danny cautiously peered around the corner. The armed guards who had been shooting at the pair were now being savagely attacked by a vicious pair of raptors. Both brothers stared in silence while watching the carnage.

"Did you let raptors loose?" Danny asked quietly. Patrick shook his head.

"As much as I'd like to, I can't claim responsibility for this one." He replied.

"It was probably Steve, then." Danny said, still in a quiet tone. "It's the sort of thing he'd think of." Both men stared in silence for another few moments.

"It does have a kind of ruthless efficiency to it." Patrick observed. Danny nodded in silence.

"We should probably get to the generator." Danny said finally.

"Yeah," Patrick agreed. They both moved away from the raptor massacre and ran down the hallway to the stairs.

Danny kicked open the stairwell door, allowing Patrick to move in first. Unfortunately, the four guards who were coming up the steps reacted faster than Patrick could.

They opened fire quickly. Patrick returned it as he backed away. Danny soon joined in as well. The men on the stairs dropped quickly under the hail of bullets Danny and Patrick laid down.

"Let's move." Danny said confidently.

Patrick tried to step forward, but was suddenly stopped by blinding pain. He looked down to see blood seeping from his stomach. He tried to stop the bleeding, but he could already feel his legs getting weaker. Patrick backed up against the wall and slid down silently.

XXXXX

Danny turned around to see his brother slumped against the wall.

"Pat!" He yelled frantically. Danny rushed back up the steps and crouched by his brother. Patrick looked at him with slightly unfocused eyes.

"Danny, go." He instructed in a pained voice. Danny shook his head, tears beginning to cloud his vision.

"I'm not leaving you." He responded.

"Yes you are." Patrick stated firmly. "This is bigger than both of us. You've got to stop it." Danny tried to argue, but he could hear guards shouting in the distance. Danny stood up and tried to grab Patrick by his arms.

"C'mon," Danny grunted angrily. "We can make it, just let me carry you." Patrick refused to move.

"It won't work, Danny." He said calmly. "We both know it. The remaining guards are coming and they'll catch us both." Danny looked at his brother, the tears flowing freely now. Patrick just grinned.

"I found you, though." He said weakly. "I could have died at any time in the past, but at least I managed to make peace first. You don't know how much that means to me." Danny stared at his brother.

"I wish we'd had more time." He choked out.

"We had enough time." Patrick responded. He slapped a new magazine into his rifle. "Now get going, I'll buy you some more." Danny nodded.

"I love you, Pat." He said finally.

"I love you too, Danny." Patrick responded. He grinned. "Now go give 'em hell from the Quinns." Danny nodded one final time and ran down the stairs. As he reached the final floor, he could hear gunshots from where he'd left Patrick. Danny squared his shoulder and opened the door to the second level basement.

As he walked in, Danny could see Steve fiddling with what Danny guessed to be the generator. As Steve heard movement behind him, he whirled around, pointing a pistol at Danny. Danny put his hands slowly. Steve took a deep breath and lowered the gun. Danny quickly walked over to the young man as Steve turned back to the generator.

"Where's Lucien?" Danny asked, looking around the large room. Steve didn't say anything, he just kept messing with something on the interface. Danny understood.

"Too many people have died for this thing." Danny said, looking at the generator with genuine hatred. He pulled out his pistol and leveled it at the generator. Steve looked up.

"Don't you think if it was that easy, I'd have done it already." He said quickly. "It's safeguarded against physical attacks. And where is everyone else?" Danny saw the fear in Steve's eyes.

"They're fine." He reassured him. "I sent them out. Taylor was shot, but she'll live." Steve nodded.

"You need to go too." He said quietly. Danny frowned at him.

"Well let's break this thing and we will go." He said. "What's the hold up?"

"I'm not going." Steve replied, still not looking Danny in the eye. "This generator, the only way to destroy it is to overload the system. It'll cause a total meltdown, ending in self-destruct." Danny nodded.

"How long will we have after triggering it?" He asked, looking at the door.

"_I_ will have long enough to kiss my ass goodbye." Steve said firmly, stressing the 'I'. "_You_ will have time to get out of the building and live a long and happy life." Danny shook his head forcefully.

"Oh no," He said angrily. "You are not blowing yourself up. No, sir, that'll be my job."

"I'm not budging on this, Danny." Steve responded firmly. "I'm going to blow this, you are going to live."

"I'll make you leave." Danny said, pointing his pistol at Steve in desperation. Steve laughed.

"And how will you trigger the overload?" He asked sarcastically. "I'm the only one who knows how." Steve crossed his arms and glared at Danny.

"What about Emily?" Danny asked, trying desperately to convince his friend. Steve's expression softened for a moment.

"She'll be fine." He said. Danny could hear the weakening conviction in his voice.

"No she won't." Danny persisted. "They've already lost Darren and Lucien, and now you want to kill yourself too. How will any of them go on?"

"And how will your death be any better?" Steve asked angrily, his voice rising. Danny just stared as the young man sunk down to the floor against the generator.

"I don't want to go on, Danny." Steve said weakly. "I can't anymore. I've watched too many people die. I just can't."

Danny crouched next to his young friend. He put a consoling hand on his shoulder.

"I know how this feels." Danny said quietly. "I lost my brother when I was twenty one. The police told me he was dead, but there was no body, so I kept looking. Joined the force so I could keep looking. I didn't know how I could keep going, but I did."

"Did you find him?" Steve asked curiously, looking at Danny for the first time.

"Sorta," Danny replied. "After my first year in the past, I came back, and he was there. He'd gone slightly insane, became a terrorist in the nineteen hundreds. And he wanted to kill me."

"Just minor details." Steve said with a small smile. Danny nodded.

"Exactly. He ended up not killing me; he decided to run off into the past instead. And I followed him." Steve nodded, but still looked confused. Danny grinned, understanding his confusion.

"When I think about, I don't know what the moral of that story was supposed to be either. I think I just needed to get it off my chest." Steve stood up and looked at the generator.

"I lied." He said thoughtfully. Danny stood up quickly.

"You mean no one has to be a martyr?" He asked. Steve shook his head sadly.

"No such luck." He replied. "I just meant that blowing this isn't that complicated. I rigged it to blow when you slam this button." Danny looked at the console and noticed the pronoun use.

"The big red one?" He clarified. Steve nodded. Steve walked towards the door and turned back.

"Thank you, Danny." He said suddenly. As he turned to go, he looked back a final time.

"Did you ever find your brother?" He asked. Danny grinned.

"Yeah, he forgave me, followed me into this time, broke in here, and saved us back in the cell. Then he died on the stairwell."

Steve's face was a study in shock.

"Huh," He said finally. "Life's funny like that." Danny shrugged.

"Like I said, I don't know why I told you that story. I think I just needed to tell someone." Steve nodded.

"Good luck." Danny said finally. Steve opened the door.

"You too, Danny." And he was gone.

Danny sat with his back against the generator, a small smile on his face. He'd lived a pretty good life. He'd loved, he'd lost, he'd evaded death a dozen times, and he'd spent years surviving against all odds in the past. Overall, Danny decided he didn't have any regrets with the way he'd lived his life.

He gave Steve another four minutes time to get out of the building. As he debated whether or not to wait a few more minutes, a door at the end of the room burst open.

Four men wearing black jumpsuits ran forward, rifles leveled.

"Hands in the air and don't move." The first man yelled.

Danny slowly raised his hands and thought about all the times he'd yelled that at suspects. It hadn't always worked then, either. As the man got closer, Danny slammed the butt of his pistol into Steve's magic button.

He could see the slow realization of what he'd done dawn in the guard's eyes. So Danny did the only thing left to do: he gave the guards his cheekiest grin and flipped the bird. And then everything went white.

XXXXX

Ben stood with his hands jammed into his pockets, looking at the headstones. Darren Richards, Lucien Bell, and Danny Quinn. Steve stood quietly beside him, holding Emily's hand tightly. On Ben's other side, Taylor stood, holding a crutch to support her weight.

The service had been touching; they'd held Darren and Lucien's back to back. Danny already had a grave marked by the ARC after the anomalies closed. Lester had pulled some strings with the right people to get the graves next to each other.

As the four survivors stood quietly looking at the gravestones of their friends, a loud beeping broke the silence. Ben looked sharply at Steve, who fished a phone out of his pocket with an odd expression on his face.

"What's wrong?" Emily asked with concern. Steve looked at the screen blankly.

"It's an anomaly alert." He said weakly. Ben's jaw dropped.

"I thought we stopped them." Taylor said in shock. Steve shook his head slowly.

"After convergence, the anomalies got worse before they got better." Steve said thoughtfully. He slowly turned to look at Ben. Ben realized that the others were all waiting for him to make a decision. He met Steve's gaze.

"How far away is it?" He asked. Steve grinned.

"About 10 miles." He responded. Ben nodded.

"Let's get going." Ben said.


End file.
